To Placate Detachment
by Cooked Sashimi
Summary: -AU- While cynics come to regard everybody as equally corrupt, idealists find corruption in all but themselves; in reality, everything is inconsequential. Konoha is breaking: bit by bit, person by person... Eventual NarutoxFemKyuubi / KyuuNaru / no yaoi.
1. Alone

**I do not own Naruto**

**Warning: Rated M for future self injury, gore, and occasional adult themes**

_Thinking/emphasis_

"talking"

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

The guttural burn seeping down his throat adequately illustrated how the ordinarily overzealous twelve year old boy felt whilst leaning against the far wall of his apartment. He chose this wall as it was the only one to have not recently been defiled. The boy shifted, a hand twitching for the 9½ inch, serrated field knife lying beside him. After a few moments the twitching stopped. He knew it was pointless, really, any wound would heal in seconds, regardless of his personal will.

Naruto sighed, gripping the bottle in his hand tightly before sipping the Sake slowly,

_Ne… fox… could you actually let me feel something tonight?_

_**NO! This habit would be a burden, I refuse to allow my albeit reluctant proxy to fall to such a crutch,**_

_Pretty please Kyuu-chan?_

_**No.**_

_You suck._

_**Hn, think what you may, my answer will never change.**_

_Fuck you._

He glanced at the relatively wide selection of Fuuinjutsu books he'd stolen, a modicum of contentment appearing at he recognized how easily he (and his clones) could pick up the otherwise considered difficult practice.

_Guess that's the class 'dobe' for ya… can't make a godforsaken Bunshin to save my life but give me some seals and I'll breeze right through them…_

_Fucking stupid._

_**Don't complain about your own talents, boy, your excess of chakra is a blessing, not to mention sealing has unlimited possibilities… you know… like releasing me?**_

_No one asked you._

It had been two days since his impromptu 'make up' genin exam. Two days since he had been shoved out of denial by Mizuki's announcement regarding his prisoner.

Said announcer is now dead, the scroll returned.

Naruto wasn't sure if he felt proud for besting a chuunin alone, or depressed that he'd been truly, alone.

**_Boy, you're never alone,_**

_You don't count._

_***gasp***_

_oh, can it_

The emotional shock was enough to weaken the seal to the point where the prisoner gained a conversationalist. Naruto wasn't sure how okay with that he was, though in retrospect, his opinion didn't really make a difference.

Then again, a lot of things didn't make a difference anymore. For example: his formerly idealistic views of life were now just useless reminders of the past.

Because he wasn't like that anymore, this changed everything. Though he was more or less glad that his hardships finally made sense, a little, It was troublesome how he couldn't return to the bliss of ignorance.

_Knowledge is power? perhaps in time... Knowledge is pain? oh, it most certainly is._

The events themselves hindered no one but the formerly orange clad genin who, only became so after silently placing the scroll next to Mizuki's head on the Hokage's desk, calmly explaining the unfortunate situation in a sullen tone.

The Hokage seemed sympathetic, insisting for Naruto to still become a genin of the leaf.

He frowned at the old man's reaction, having hesitantly taken the small headband, _they're probably going to watch me closely now, see if I become the murderous fuck they've all been waiting for... oh what high standards I have to look forward to,_

Afterward, as it was late, Naruto silently broke into the clothing store that previously refused him sales; their approval didn't matter anymore, it was no use trying to be something he was not. Furthermore, the orange rags he called 'fashion' needed to be burned.

It was shortly after that Naruto discovered Sake via an abandoned bottle on the side of the road; deciding that he liked the burn, he stole several bottles from a nearby convenience store.

Half of those bottles were gone now.

The blonde stared at the empty bottle in his hand, the fox refused to allow him the experience of inebriation, insisting on purging the toxin with it's chakra before allowing it to saturate his senses. That didn't stop Naruto from enjoying the burn, however, as it lasted much longer than the prickle of a knife to his skin.

You could say that he had finally cracked from the constant beatings and belittlement from the villagers. The beatings turning him into a sado-masochist, the belittlement, into a hardened cynic.

He wanted to leave the shit-hole. His previous 'dream' of becoming Hokage was clearly an impossibility and therefore abruptly abandoned. He found that at this point it was only a matter of finding the perfect time.

He stared back into the darkness of his apartment, knowing better than to use any light that may alert civilians to his presence.

_What the hell am I supposed to do now? I can't just up and leave the village without getting stronger, I'll dead faster than a fly on the wall_

_**You know that metaphor didn't make sense**_

_Again, no one asked you._

He discarded the bottle, forming a cross seal with his hands,

"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu"

An identical clone appeared before him,

"Well?" Naruto asked the clone, "what should I do?"

The clone shook his head slowly, "I wouldn't know, boss, I don't know any more than you do."

"Shit… I forgot about that"

The clone dispelled

_What about you, fox? Don't you have any wisdom-shitting advice? _

_**Frankly, I'd slaughter them all,**_

_Of course you would… but really, what would that prove? _

_**Fuck em**_

_*sigh* You're not helping, looks like I'll just have to go with the flow for awhile… damn_

_**The slaughter is still an option~**_

_I'm going to sleep,_

_**You know, you can't spell slaughter without laughter~~**_

_Shut the fuck up and let me sleep,_

_**Killjoy**_

**wWw**

The alarm rang, team assignments were today.

Naruto left the house in his new clothes; faded grey shinobi pants, an equally grey tank top, black sandals, and a knee-length black trench coat with crimson flames across the bottom that he left open to display the forehead protector he'd tied around his waist.

Without the goggles around his forehead, Naruto's hair fell lazily over his eyes. Since he'd 'found out' about everything, the previously sunny color had lost a bit of its sheen. He had discarded the pitiful excuse for shuriken and kunai he'd been sold, strapping the holster for his field knife on his right thigh; he slipped the ebony blade into the cover, fingers lingering over the leather handle. Finally he picked up two of the smaller advanced Fuuinjutsu books, sealing one into the storage seal attached to the interior pocket of his coat, while leaving the other one out to read on the go.

He left his house, nose deep in his book,

He arrived at the academy, nose deep in his book,

Utterly ignoring his classmates shocked glances, Naruto silently sat beside the Uchiha who looked at him appraisingly,

"Oi, Naruto!"

Said boy shut the book, saving his place with a thin slip of paper he'd held in his sleeve, he turned toward the shout; it was Kiba.

"yes?" he asked, tone monotonous,

"che, this class is for the _actual _ninjas that _graduated_, what the hell are you doing here?"

Naruto shifted so his coat would fall slightly, displaying his forehead protector-belt, before tapping the metal display,

"due to certain classified circumstances I was able to graduate at a later time, mutt."

Many were surprised how little the formerly hyperactive boy's tone changed as they watched him turn away from the Inuzuka to continue reading.

CRASH

Bursting into the room were Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, self proclaimed co-presidents of the Sasuke Uchiha fan club. Noticing Naruto's presence in the seat beside their 'Sasuke-kun,' the girls rushed up the steps to remedy the situation.

The pink banshee began, hands on her hips, "NARUTO-BAKA WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE SEAT NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN WHEN IT'S OBVIOUS HE WANTS _ME_ BY HIS SIDE,"

Naruto's eyes rose from his book, meeting that of the squealing girl. He figured she expected him to jump and apologize as always before making way for her _infinite glory,_

Did you sense the sarcasm there? Cuz he meant it.

Why the fuck did he ever like this girl anyway? Sure, she was attractive enough for a twelve year old, but Kami-sama her voice was so aggravating

Instead he turned to Sasuke who had been dreading, yet expecting, a similar outcome,

"Uchiha," he began, the digging apathy in his voice was abundant "do you particularly _care_ whether I or Haruno," he jutted a thumb in her direction, "occupy this seat?"

While the Uchiha was now sure something was wrong with the blonde ninja; nevertheless, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, "Hn, it makes no difference to me."

Naruto turned back to the astonished Sakura, "see? Spoken from the man himself."

Before she had a chance to reply, Iruka silenced the class with his 'big head no jutsu.' He looked at Naruto with a questioning glance but generally shrugged it off,

"and now I'm going to be announcing this years teams… team seven will be Sakura Haruno… Naruto Uzumaki,"

_Well shit_

"and Sasuke Uchiha,"

_Double shit_

_**Stop thinking about fecal matter brat, you're making it smell in the mindscape**_

Naruto fought against the urge to laugh hollowly at his situation, after all, it's not every day that the Kyuubi no Kitsune forcibly tells you to stop _thinking_ about crap.

"YES! TAKE THAT INO-PIG, TRUE LOVE ALWAYS PREVAILS!"

I bet you can just guess who said that.

**dun dun DUN *quivers in fear***

**This entire story is based on the question: what if Iruka didn't show up that night?**

**I know it may seem super canon right now, but it'll diverge soon**

**I based Naruto's 'brisk' understanding of seals to what's been previously said about his father as well as his mother's village (both of which were known for sealing expertise)**

**I'm not going to give Naruto any bloodlines to aid his progress & what not, in my opinion he's always had enough to succeed, simply lacking opportunity,**

**And I've always felt like if canon Kyuubi wasn't such a man-bitch, then that would've been a perfect opportunity.**

**Also, although I do dislike Sakura, I'm not actually trying to bash her here, she was just a real idiot before the time skip.**

**Reviews…?**

**Anywhoo**

**That's it**

…

**for now**


	2. Seven

"talking"

_thinking_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

Naruto sighed, turning back to his book as they waited for Kakashi Hatake, better known as the "copy ninja;" and now their apparent sensei.

Two hours pass.

"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?" – the pink one

"Hn." – the emo

Another hour.

"WHY ARE WE STILL WAITING HERE?" – the pink one

"Hnn." – the emo

_**FOR KAMI'S SAKE MAKE THEM SHUT UP!**_ – the fuzz

_We both know I can't do that_

_**Pleeease**_

_No._

_**But-**_

_No._

_**Psh… I swear, you're worse than the blonde prick that sealed me in here in the first place**_

_Please don't mention my father… ever_

_**Oh, did I touch a nerve?**_

_I'm warning you fox,_

_**Ooooh I'm so scared… not**_

… _whatever you say… fluffers._

_**I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT**_

_*mentally grins*_

Sakura and Sasuke looked curiously over at Naruto, confused by his silence, only to see him slightly cringe at (apparently) nothing. The wince aside, the usually rambunctious child hadn't moved further than occasionally turning pages in his book. As it was, he was well aware that they'd likely be waiting several hours every time it was necessary to meet with the copy nin.

How did he know this? Well, immediately beyond learning of his tenant, she (kyu-chan) had thought it fitting to demonically enhance Naruto's senses. _All _of his senses, and following the initial shock of the overwhelming… everything, Naruto began using his new gifts for information gathering. Unfortunately for the young container, the more the learned, the more he realized just how little he _really_ had known about the world of his chosen profession beforehand.

That was when he'd come up with the perfect information gathering plan:

paperwork.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knew how much the Hokage detested his paperwork. In reality, it wasn't just the Hokage, every Kage despised the sheer continuity of papers presented for their approval, the overwhelming amount of useless shinobi mission – paperwork that needed to be filed just to keep the economic commerce of a hidden village running.

Surely, the aged kage thought, paperwork was created by none other than a demon.

…

Speaking of demons, the day after his 'discovery,' Naruto made a point to go over to the Hokage's tower and request _specifically _to help out with the paperwork.

By help out, he'd assumed to find himself slowly siphoning information (valuable or not) from a small workload.

After all, he's only twelve here.

But alas, Naruto did not take into account the idea that _no one_ had _ever_ volunteered to do the paperwork, inevitably causing the office workers to give him _everything_.

Suffice to say, he ended up with a lot more information than expected and he wasn't entirely sure whether it was really worth it.

Anyway, one of the things these habits left the young boy with was a fairly accurate grasp on many of the 'coping quirks' the jonins of the village exhibited: an example being Kakashi's perpetual lateness & porn addiction.

Among other things

Not that the young jinchirukki would ever admit to partaking in such work…

But that's beside the point,

Feeling his teammates gaze's, Naruto glanced up from the book, "Can I help you?"

"STOP TRYING TO ACT SO COOL NARUTO-BAKA, IT'S NOT WORKING,"

He shrugged before turning back to his book.

_Right… why did I ever like her again?_

_**You wanted attention… But that doesn't matter, you should kill them all**_

_Kyuu-chan, we both know I'm not going to senselessly kill people. So please, be constructive with your words._

_**But why won't you!**_

_Honestly I don't see the point… it's not that I don't want to for all they've done to me, it just seems excessive and I don't really have the means to without detrimental consequences. _

_**But-**_

_No. even you have to understand that the seal is too strong for me to access more that a fraction of your power. So seriously, if I, and by association you, are going to do anything we're going to have to bide our time and get stronger. Forget petty goals and what not. This is only for survival._

…

Naruto was pleased with the newfound silence of his mind.

Unbeknownst to the blonde, one Sasuke Uchiha was diligently churning away within his mind at possible triggers for the 'dead last's' attitude change; and coming up with nothing. Don't misunderstand, the brooding child was abundantly thrilled with his classmates change; the silence, for one, was amazing as he truly wasn't sure if whatever was left of his sanity could deal with two screaming banshees; the reading, as well, prompted the thought that the 'dobe' had given his studies (or lack there of) a one over, deciding to lose former frivolous ways in favor of strength, something the young Uchiha could respect.

Given the less than fortunate events that welcomed Sasuke into the age of six, he found himself hating just about everyone surrounding him in the leaf village. What the hell were they doing, doting over him, while his murderous brother was out there getting stronger? Sure, a large part of the raven-haired child strived, no, _hungered_ for the power to veritably destroy Itachi's life as his 'nii-san' had done his, but he wasn't in any way delusional in the belief that the former leaf nin would allow his own skills to placate as the sole survivor of his rampage trained on. For gods sake, Itachi had been an ANBU captain when he was Sasuke's age!

If that didn't illustrate his rapid growth abilities, the more or less loyal Uchiha wasn't quite sure what did.

Yes. Sasuke Uchiha did not like the village of Konoha whatsoever. It's values were all but a farce that it's citizens (both nin and not) found proper to preach rabidly before just as ardently spitting on them. Something he noted particularly in the village's general treatment of his new teammate.

As far as he was concerned, the blonde didn't seem like a demon; and really, if he was, wouldn't his tormentors have been killed or something? The only reason Sasuke didn't approach the blonde in question was the reaction such a occurrence would've likely ensued, i.e. 'the demon has corrupted the Uchiha!' or 'we must help the Uchiha kill the demon!"

Ridiculous.

He'd also come to notice that he'd unlocked the sharingan the night his family was murdered, as he could feel the chakra reflexively gravitating toward his eyes every time he trained. It was troublesome since he wanted to be a good ninja _without_ his bloodline, having it as a trump card and only that. From how easily his brother murdered the clan, he could see just how overdependence inspired complacency, that of which inspired death.

It is for this same reason that the young Sasuke Uchiha did not it appropriate to mention the activation of his bloodline to anyone. At all.

To be truly honest, since the fateful night that placed him in the graces of Konoha's elders, Sasuke found himself once or twice trying to analyze just _why_ his brother found massacring the clan an apt representation of his skill. The same train of thought forced him to ask himself _why_ on earth his brother had decided to leave him alive...

It just didn't make any sense.

Fifteen minutes later, a silver haired jonin lazily opened the classroom door. Allowing his gaze to pass across his new students, he could only sigh,

"As a first impression… I hate you."

He was met with silence,

"Right," the jonin hesitantly continued, "meet on the roof."

**wWw**

Kakashi had to give the kids credit:

They were fast,

Well, two of them were.

He'd barely had five minutes of reading time with his precious Icha Icha when Naruto and Sasuke appeared pointedly before him, another five minutes later and the third member of his 'team' arrived, slightly winded from the run.

God how he didn't want to be a teacher.

"So…" the copy nin began, "why don't you all introduce yourselves"

Sakura glanced around nervously, having sufficiently caught her breath, "what do you mean sensei?"

"oh, you know name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams,"

"why don't you go first, so we can get an idea of what to say,"

Kakashi raised his revealed eyebrow, "eh? Fine… My name is Kakashi Hatake; I have no intention of telling you my likes and dislikes… My dreams… I have some hobbies."

Two of the three genin deadpanned, the third sighed,

"Kakashi Hatake. Jounin." Naruto muttered, accessing the mental image of his new sensei's file, "Obtained the sharingan through unfortunately deceased teammate, leading to reputation of having copied over a thousand jutsus. Reads porn in public… often. Leaves one to assume he likes porn,"

Sasuke frowned slightly, _ah, so they've assigned this one as my sensei for his ability to help me 'master' the sharingan… no doubt they expect him to express blatant favoritism,_

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "since you're so open about those you've never met, why don't you start us off, whiskers."

"why not," he began monotonously, "my name may or may not be Naruto Uzumaki. I live my life one day at a time, for now at least… do you happen have any sake Hatake-san?"

Almost immediately after the words left his lips, a screech was heard,

"WHAT THE HELL NARUTO-BAKA, CAN'T YOU EVEN GET AN INTRODUCTION RIGHT!"

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully, choosing to utterly ignore his pinkette student for the time being, "now Naruto, what makes you think I'd have any sake on me?"

Sakura blanched, "WHY ARE YOU ENCOURAGING HIM?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Hatake-san," Naruto piqued, "but I found it appropriate to assume a certain level of, albeit well masked, depression on your part, given the loss of just about every quote unquote precious person you've ever encountered. That is unless you count one Gai Maito as a precious person… which I'd personally find hard to believe."

Kakashi blinked, this was not at all what he expected from his sensei's son, nor was it what his student's file prepared him for, "I'm sorry Naruto," he sighed, "I do not have any sake on my person, perhaps next time… so, pinky, you're next,"

Sakura frowned internally at the nickname but resolved to apply a sickly sweet smile to her features, "I'm Sakura Haruno, the things I like… I mean the person I like-"

There was a squeal as she glanced at Sasuke,

"my hobbies-"

another squeal,

"my dreams for the future-"

a louder squeal, prompting several birds to leave their perch,

"So what do you dislike, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, hesitantly,

"NARUTO-BAKA!"

"Right…" the copy nin commented, "why don't you finish this off, broody,"

Sasuke furrowed his brows slightly, why did people insist of making fun of his generally darkened demeanor? His entire family had been killed right before his eyes, didn't that account for some level of assumed discontent? Did they really expect him to adopt some sort of joy-shitted mask for their own selfish benefit?

Apparently they did.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like very little and dislike quite a lot; more specifically those who faultily try to mitigate their own mistakes and those who disregard strength for more… shallow purposes," he glared at his pink-haired teammate who, didn't notice. "I have some goals to accomplish, most centrally solving a difficult case to avenge various innocents."

Sakura stared at the object of her affections dreamily, no doubt lavishly recanting his speech in her own mind,

Naruto glanced at both of his teammates before exhaling softly,

_This is a most unfortunate turn of events… if anything my future prospects have already been set back… ah shit,_

_**Oh hush, you're already more talented than them,**_

_That's only because I've been buffed up with near continuous knowledge from my clones,_

_**Come visit me in the seal later, we need to have a talk,**_

He frowned, not used to hearing more than one sentence at a time from the demon that didn't involve mindless slaughter,

_Sure, I'll be there after this meeting,_

What did he have to lose, right?

"all right you three," Kakashi droned, arms crossed, "we're going to be meeting tomorrow at training ground seven at… lets say six am,"

"what are we meeting for, sensei?" Sakura asked,

The copy nin tapped his chin lightly before breaking out into a slight chuckle, "you guys aren't going to be pleased if I tell you,"

"why's that?" Naruto muttered, "cause you've failed all your previous students?"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT NARUTO-BAKA!"

"He's right!" Kakashi said, startling the students slightly as his visible eye turned into an amused crease, "tomorrow you three will embark in a survival test to see if you're really genin material that has an overall fail-rate of sixty six percent… however, my personal fail-rate as Naruto so aptly mentioned is one hundred percent!" He was grinning at this point, not that anyone could see it,

"b-but we just passed the genin test!" Sakura stammered,

"don't you see," Sasuke spoke up, "that was just to weed out the hopeless, tomorrow is the real deal,"

"you've got it!" Kakashi said, still smiling, in truth this was his favorite part of the assignment, as it was the only legal way he could get out of teaching for the year,

That and it was funny to watch them squirm,

Jonins of his caliber didn't have time to get out much, and therefore didn't see much humor in their day to day lives,

"All right then, kids," he said, "I'll see you then, and don't eat breakfast… you'll puke."

With that, he disappeared in a poof of smoke,

After waiting a few moments, Naruto stood and left, not checking if his teammates were following, it was unimportant after all.

**wWw**

Back at his apartment, Naruto sat cross legged on his bed, meditating until his felt a now familiar pull on his consciousness. Within seconds he was sitting before a large cage in his mindscape,

"I'm here, Kyuu-chan!" he called out,

"coming, coming," a feminine voice replied, as a figure walked toward him, stopping at the edge of the cage, "come closer, it's so awkward with you sitting all the way over there!"

Standing at 5'10" she looked to be no older than seventeen, with thick crimson hair flowing to the center of her back, matching the blood red shade that flooded her eyes less the slight black slits along the centers in place of pupils.

She wore a small black kimono that ended around the center of her thighs, it was decorated with similarly crimson accents, adding a more or less formal look to make up for her bare legs and feet.

Her delicate yet plush lips twitched in response to Naruto's inaction, threatening to fall into a guilt-inducing pout, before she abandoned such efforts in favor of a feral grin that promptly displayed her sharpened canines,

"don't tell me you're actually afraid of lil old me?" she sang, attempting to goad the indifferent teen,

He sighed, getting up and moving until he was standing opposite her in front of the cage.

"why have you asked me to come here?" he inquired,

"can't I just want to spend some time with my ah-dorable little host?"

"no. from what I've heard and seen of you so far, all you ever want is continuous destruction; so tell me, why the sudden change?"

Her grin widened, "well someone's gotten perceptive~"

He stared at her blankly,

"Fine," she sighed, "as you know, all of your senses are reflected within the seal. I see what you see, hear what you hear, feel what you feel etc…" she looked away, her eyes gaining a far-off glaze, "I want to feel the splash of blood against my face, hear the crunch as neck joints fall to the pressure of my hands," she glanced at her hands, "see as blood cascades from human vitals," she faced Naruto, who's expression hadn't changed, "are you catching my drift?"

He nodded, "this is nothing new, you want me to torture and kill people senselessly."

"it's not senseless!" she snapped, "it's art!"

"Sure." He said, "you want me to take up art… this is nothing new."

"I haven't gotten to my proposition."

"okay, what is it?"

"you're going to start getting missions soon, and no doubt eventually you will come to points where you are given an option between sparing your opponents or terminating their miserable lives. What I'm asking you to do is simply choose the latter. Every. Single. Time."

Naruto looked around, his eyes gaining a thoughtful presence, "what would I get out of this little accord of yours?"

Kyuubi's eyes crinkled as she smiled broadly,

She was starting to like this container, he was more interesting than most flesh-bags she encountered.

**DUN DUN DUNNN**

**I wanted to experiment with Sasuke's character more than the usual "I'm an Uchiha avenger, fear me" cliché so he's been given his own little expose. I truly do believe that if he'd used his brain a little, he could've been a half-decent character.**

**In other news~**

**I've always been a little torn at the concept of a "nice, loving" Kyuubi. I mean, I absolutely love the pairing in itself, I'm just unsure about her personality.**

**As such, you may come to notice in this story there will be no lovey-dovey shit.**

**Frankly, the essence of their relationship with be that of reluctant "fuck buddies,"**

**Then again, that could just be because I like the term "fuck buddies"**

**Whoever coined it should be proud**

**Also, I will say now (before anyone decides to ask) that it is unlikely for Kyuubi and Naruto to procreate **_**much**_** before the time-skip… since… you know… he's twelve -_-**

**Bye now**


	3. Tested

"talking"

_Thinking_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

"what if I told you," the demon chuckled, "that I knew exactly who your mother was,"

Naruto's eyes widened; he knew of his father, the Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze, it would take an idiot to _not_ notice the blunt resemblance, but his mother… she was a complete mystery in the young jinchirukki's mind. He assumed that he'd taken his mother's name, as it didn't seem like the Sandaime to completely fabricate family lines; yet despite this assumption, no matter how many times he looked through the clan directories, gazed at the memorial stone, or filed through the cemetery names, he couldn't find a single Uzumaki apart from himself.

It made him feel… lonely,

"what do you mean?" he asked, the surprise evident on his face.

"I'll tell you after you agree. Think of it as temporary collateral on my part,"

Naruto thought back to everything the demon said, coming upon another conclusion, "so… there's more to this deal?"

Her laugh was simultaneously high pitched and empty as it resonated throughout the seal, "of course, my dear container, I wish for this to be an ongoing arrangement. If you agree, I'll tell you about your mother, now; and every time you honor the deal and kill someone, torturing them if possible, I'll help with your training."

"how could you help me?"

"I'm a millennia old demon," she snorted, "how could I not help you,"

"I suppose" he muttered, opting to pace through the sewer-like location momentarily before turning back to his eternal companion, "and all you want is some sensible carnage?"

"Well it'd be nice if you could make this place a little nicer," she shrugged, "spending a lifetime in a sewer was never something I imagined myself doing,"

He raised an eyebrow, "so butchery and a pretty room?"

"yup!"

Naruto thought over his options, while he wasn't sure how comfortable he was making deals with a demon, he didn't really have much to lose in this case, and he really did need to get stronger if he had any hopes for a moderately enjoyable existence.

Not to mention she was technically _his_ demon, such that she'd always be there, so it wasn't like he could very well ignore her forever…

Not that he wanted to either, despite everything, the child still had abandonment issues.

"okay." He said, "you've got yourself a deal. Now, tell me about my mother."

Kyuubi grinned, "well, I suppose I'll have to begin with informing you that you were not my first container, directly before you was your mother, Kushina Uzumaki…"

As he listened to Kyuubi recant her time with his mother, Naruto couldn't help but feel a certain sense of regretful closure as it seemed as much as he tried to deny it, a certain part of his subconscious had always hoped for his mother to still have been alive.

Such hopes were inconsequential now.

**wWw**

The next day, Naruto found it proper to ignore his sensei's 'suggestion' choosing to eat breakfast anyway as he created a hundred shadow clones to go off and train. Finally, he decided to arrive at the destined training ground sometime around eight. Not wanting to make the same mistake as the previous day, the young container stuck a small flask of sake in one of his coat pockets; otherwise his apparel was identical to the aforementioned day.

"NARUTO-BAKA! YOU'RE LATE!"

Joy. his teammates were already there.

"Am I now?" he looked around, "I don't see sensei anywhere; making your personal judgment nothing but a petty dissertation without sufficient warranting force."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Sakura seethed, "I'LL SHOW YOU WARRANTING FORCE!"

She pulled her fist back, expecting him to simply take her abuse as per usual, before falling losing balance and falling over as he swiftly side stepped her wrath, subsequently ignoring her in favor of his new fuuinjutsu book.

One of the more noticeable aspects that Kyuubi had brought to light within her information regarding his mother was that of the Uzumaki clan's specialization in seals. Coupled with his father's apparent genius nature regarding the art gave Naruto a decent picture as to why he'd picked up the practice of fuuinjutsu so easily.

He turned his attention to the chapter he'd reluctantly put aside the night before in favor of at least an hour of sleep. Time-Space fuuinjutsu: the study of the destructuralization and rearrangement of physicality's.

Given who his father was, Naruto strived to not only perform the 'Hiraishin,' but also to perfect it's use. For this, he believed it was necessary to re-create the technique from his own knowledge and theoretical ideas, rather than ask for the inherited scrolls.

"what are you reading?"

Looking up from his book, Naruto turned his head slightly toward the source of the question, mildly surprised that his raven-haired teammate had decided to speak with him.

",'More than Ink: Creative Fuuinjutsu Creations, Level Five'," he recited, displaying the cover to his companion,

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, Fuuinjutsu was supposed to be the most difficult of ninja tecniques, "I didn't know you were interested in sealing,"

"what difference would you knowing have made," Naruto shrugged, "regardless, it's the only legacy I've got," he muttered,

"DON'T BE SO RUDE TO SASUKE-KUN"

Ignoring Sakura's outburst, Sasuke was curious about what his other teammate said, as far as they knew, Naruto was an orphan, never to have known of his parents.

Had something changed?

This warranted investigation, he decided, "Hey Naruto," the last Uchiha spoke, noticing that Naruto had turned back to his book, "are you any good with deciphering seals?"

"I guess I'm better than most,"

"Could you help me out then? I've been trying to decipher several of the seals in the Uchiha family jutsu vault and no one I've asked has been able to figure them out."

Naruto shut his book, giving Sasuke his undivided attention for the first time since the conversation had begun, "and you want me to take a look?"

"yes…"

The blonde jinchurikki pursed his lips,

"will you pay for my services, should I be successful?"

Sasuke was taken aback, he couldn't remember the last time someone in the village had asked for money from him; it was… refreshing,

"of course,"

Naruto held his arm out, waiting a moment until Sasuke shook it, "you've got yourself a deal, Uchiha. I'll stop by tomorrow to look at those seals."

Sasuke cracked a slight smile, that nobody saw since Kakashi took it upon himself to appear at that exact moment.

"Yo!" the silver-haired jonin's tone was jovial, coupled with a half-wave.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched,

"ah well," Kakashi sighed, "there was this black cat crossing my path and I… err… had to walk all the way around Konoha to avoid it's 'bad luck-inducing wrath',"

"LIAR!"

"okay then!" he eye-smiled, placing an alarm clock on a tree-stump and whipping out two small bells, "you three have until noon to try and get these bells from me-"

"but sensei," Sakura said, "there are only two bells,"

"I'm aware." Kakashi deadpanned. Was this really the smartest female of the year?

Oh how their standards had fallen.

"one of you is going to be sent back to the academy undoubtedly… now, you can use whatever you have at your disposal as it'll be impossible for you to succeed without coming at me with an intent to kill-"

"BUT SENSEI! YOU'LL GET HURT!"

The three males in the clearing cringed simultaneously, it was going to be a long day.

"just go,"

With their teacher's prompt, two of the three children ran for cover in the trees and bushes; the third however, chose to remain in the clearing and pulled out his book.

"eh, Naruto?"

"what is it?" he responded, not bothering to look up from his reading material,

"you do realize this is an important test… don't you?"

"of course," he said, "I simply give finishing this chapter higher priority than your little test."

Kakashi was a little dumbfounded at the emotionless response he was receiving from his student, this was _not_ what his file had prepared him for at all.

He was going to have a chat with the Hokage about this.

Unbeknownst to the befuddled copy nin, Naruto was far from disinterested in the task set before him. While reading he'd summoned three shadow clones and had them transform into versions a tenth of his normal size. Seeing as the shadow clone was the only high level technique in his arsenal (besides the great clone explosion, but to a certain extent they were the same), at the moment, he'd set it upon himself to know it inside and out, making the removal of hand seals an obvious step in that direction.

He'd figured that if he continued reading he could distract his teacher with the generally considered odd behavior for long enough to grab a bell.

That was not the case, as he lost Kakashi's attention veritably quickly; then again, the blonde mused, he should've realized such actions wouldn't hold the copy nin's attention for long as said ninja used the same tactic.

Often.

What the demon container needed was a plan. Not a completely new plan, the whole 'distract and grab' seemed pretty good as a basis for anything he'd need.

It was just about execution.

He couldn't try to use any seals, as anything powerful enough would take far too long,

He couldn't jump head on, like Sasuke was now trying to do; even if his clones had barely escaped the flames from his jutsu; as he would end up an unconscious head sticking out of the ground.

He couldn't sit back and do nothing, like Sakura had done, as that would just leave him prey to a sneak attack and further his chances of being knocked out.

He couldn't ask for help either; calling upon Kyuubi's powers would both piss her off and piss off the village council, and his teammates were both out of commission for the foreseeable future of the test.

Wait.

His teammates were unconscious, meaning they couldn't hear him if he said anything… right?

Then it hit him.

It hit him like a ton of bricks,

The _perfect_ plan.

He almost grinned at what he was about to say, "ne, sensei?" Naruto piqued, pulling out his flask of sake and taking a sip,

Kakashi turned his attention from his own book, curious if his final student was finally going to do anything, "yes Naruto?"

"Though due to some less than fortunate happenings," he said, patting his stomach lightly, "I never really got to meet him, I've got a feeling that my father wouldn't have appreciated you reading those kinds of books around me, they're not exactly child-appropriate if you know what I mean,"

Kakashi almost dropped the book, his visible eye widening.

He stared at Naruto's impassive form silently for a few moments, seemingly incapable of comprehending what he'd just been told.

"but then again," the blonde's perpetual frown deepened, "it's not like you done anything so far regarding my life in itself… so I suppose it's ironically appropriate to showcase your appreciation for my godfather's unique brand of coping considering he's done even less for my well being…"

_**Picking on an obviously vulnerable guilt-inducing point within someone's psyche; I'm so proud**_

_Goodie, a demon's proud of me, wait till I tell mom – oh wait, you killed her,_

_**Aww was that supposed to make me feel bad?**_

_No. it was supposed to shut you up. I'm busy._

_**AH, that reminds me: hurry home after this, from being sealed within your mother I can implant her memories of sealing knowledge into your subconscious,**_

…_What's the catch?_

_***sigh* sometimes I think you've grown too prudent… I want you to torture someone, I need to hear their insignificant cries for mercy, it's been far to long.**_

_I've told you before I can't just go around torturing people,_

_**Ah ah ah, but I've figured out a solution to this predicament of yours,**_

_Somehow I know I'm going to regret asking what this solution is_

_**Just volunteer for the interrogation bureau, I'm sure that old man feels enough guilt to get you in,**_

_Fine, I'll try,_

_***grins**__*****_

_Please stay quiet until I finish with this test now… thank you,_

"I guess that just goes to show," Naruto continued, unperturbed by the half-minute pause he'd made to converse with his demon; if anything, it seemed to unnerve his teacher even more, "how little my father's trust really meant to the shinobi world, if such a feeble request –no _dying_ request can be tossed aside so effortlessly,"

By this point Kakashi was gaping. The 'genius' attribute within his mind began applying the given information to the status quo, allowing for a maelstrom of questions to bombard his conscious thought process: How did he know of his father? How did he know of his tenant? How did he know of Jiraiya? How did he know of _him_?

Then the guilt came.

No matter how he tried to reason with himself, Kakashi knew Naruto was right in his assumed ramblings. He should've been there to support the child of his sensei after Jiraiya left the village. He should've done more than idly watch as the villagers belittled and spat on the fourth's legacy, his greatest sacrifice and-

Then he realized: he hadn't felt this guilty since Obito's death.

A realization that prompted all of the emotional baggage and thoughts connected to the deceased Uchiha flooded from his subconscious, conveniently connecting themselves to just how helpful and comforting his sensei had been.

Damn regret.

Damn it all to hell.

For all that passed through his mind, the only coherent sound to come from the copy nin's mouth at the resounding moment was something along the lines of, "I-I-I-eh?"

Naruto, however, was prepared to move on, "Don't worry yourself over it, Hatake-san," he conceded, "all things considered, I think I've turned out just fine,"

Somehow, that didn't make Kakashi feel any better.

"By the way, Hatake-san," the blonde rose his voice slightly to confirm he'd caught the older man's attention, "I think we pass."

The sound of the small bell ringing in his now permanent student's hand was Kakashi's first and only indication it had been taken.

"But… when?" he stammered

"hmm?" Naruto said, having turned his attention back to his book, "oh, I took it while you were wallowing in your own self-induced guilt,"

…what the-

"so we pass, right?"

"err," Kakashi sighed, "the point was for you all to work together… so no-"

"ah but we did, Hatake-san! Had they not confirmed your suspicions of our general level of strength you would've never let your guard down long enough for us to chat."

"Fine. Be at the Hokage's office in two days for missions."

With that, Naruto was left alone in the clearing. Not wanting to waste time explaining the situation, he simply wrote up two post-it notes and attached them to his teammates foreheads.

**Dun dun DUN**

**Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed, alerted etc… it's really encouraging :]**

**If you're wondering why Kyuubi is trying to help him (with the seals and what not,) it's because she's recognized, to a certain extent, that Naruto can't uphold his part of the deal if he's not a little stronger,**

**I'm also trying hard to not overpower him overnight. He will be powerful, he'll just earn it over time.**

**Also, though it may not be as evident in the recent chapters, Naruto is very psychologically damaged, he's simply distracting himself with the goal of getting stronger.**

**Yeah,**

**okay**

**Now a few responses:**

MagicFear - **I promise you, this will not be a harem. Maybe it's just cause I'm a girl, but I feel really awkward writing harem stories in general.**

Grimangel163 – **I think you'll like what I have planned for Hinata.**

Shihouin Shunshin - ** I didn't mean to imply that there would never be any emotional attachment whatsoever, only that it may take a while for Naruto and Kyuubi to feel anything, or even realize they feel anything... I mean I can't very well have them on the verge of 'like' right from the get-go since technically they've just met, and it would just be weird… By the way, I love your username.**

…

…

**I need to stop rambling **


	4. Veracity

**NOTE: to those who noticed my epic fail in posting a chapter of a different story here by accident, i'm sorry! i've fixed it now.**

"talking"

_thinking_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

In the office of one Hizuren Sarutobi, a group of disgruntled jonin waited patiently as their fearless leader read his second favorite student's literary work, giggling perversely after every paragraph or so.

Thirty seconds passed.

Another giggle.

One of the female jonin's fist curled

Twenty seconds.

Giggle.

The same female jonin considered the idea of this all being some elaborate test, deciding that should it be the case, she would personally gut the sadistic bastard that suggested it.

A small poof was heard.

"Yo!" Kakashi exclaimed, climbing through the window,

"ah, Kakashi, you're only two hours late today," Hizuren noted, putting his book away, "did something happen?"

"I suppose,"

"well, now that you're all here it's time to report, go"

"team one – fail"

"team two – fail"

"team three – fail"

"team four – fail"

"team five – fail"

"team six – fail"

"team seven – pass"

Everyone stared at the copy nin a few whispering "really?"

After a few moments, the Hokage motioned for them to continue,

"team eight – pass"

"team nine is still in circulation…"

"team ten – pass"

"very good, very good," Hizuren sighed, "those who've passed, be back in two days with your teams for mission assignments,"

The jonin in the room took their leave, as suggested, save one.

"is there something you need Kakashi?" the Hokage asked,

"ah, it's about my team-"

"did the council pressure you to pass them for Sasuke?"

"eh… yes but that's not what I want to ask about,"

"you mean they actually passed?" Hizuren piqued, "I didn't realize that was possible with your standards."

"they passed because of Naruto."

The aged man blinked in surprise, "because of Naruto?" he repeated, unsure if he heard right.

"yes." Kakashi said, with a little more force, "because of Naruto."

Somehow, that wasn't enough for the old Hokage as he paused once before saying once more, "_Naruto?_"

Now Kakashi was a little annoyed. "yes Hokage-sama, Naruto; as in Naruto Uzumaki, my sensei's son."

"very well Kakashi, forgive my persistence, I simply find that a little hard to believe as he's been at the bottom of his class since he started at the academy and was only able to pass through… unorthodox means… now," he sighed, "why don't you tell me what you want to talk about, regarding your _team_."

Kakashi didn't like the emphasis that was placed on the word _team_.

"well, Hokage-sama; it's not that they passed that's particularly troubling me… more so _how_ they passed… or really how Naruto passed."

"go on,"

"the test itself began as expected: Sakura failed pitifully to dispel even the weakest of genjutsu, and Sasuke attacked head on with rather… excelled skills…that ultimately failed him nonetheless. Naruto on the other hand did nothing during all of this. Absolutely nothing. He simply stood in front of me and read a book."

"that's hardly something for you of all people to be complaining about." Hizuren chuckled,

"I wasn't finished." Kakashi corrected, maintaining a serious demeanor, "after both his teammates had been knocked out, Naruto began… speaking with me on rather _difficult_ topics."

Now the Hokage was interested, "difficult topics? I'm aware he knows of his tenant but that doesn't seem to warrant-"

"he brought up his father Hokage-sama. Jiraiya-sama too. He then threw in the fox for what I can only assume was his opinion of good measure."

"he knows of his father?" Hizuren inquired, more to himself, "how?"

Kakashi sighed, he was doing that a lot lately, "that is what I wanted to ask you about. I was curious how my new student, the supposed 'dead last,' had managed to pinpoint a weakness in my psyche less than twenty four hours after meeting me, so that he could apply information that he must have known to be classified and therefore shock me into distraction that he used to 'properly' pass the bell test."

For a moment they shared an uncomfortable silence.

The Hokage broke it first, "what makes you say he 'must have' known the information to be classified?"

"he purposefully waited for his peers to be rendered unconscious before revealing any of his knowledge."

Another uncomfortable silence overtook the room.

After a few moments a light knock was heard from the door.

"Hokage-sama?" A soft, yet recognizable, voice asserted from the other side of the door; it was as if they were going to great lengths to try and be unobtrusive, "may I have a word?"

Briefly, it crossed Hizuren Sarutobi's mind that Naruto was being far too polite; however, at the time he wouldn't dwell on something he'd otherwise consider a blessing.

He was a truly optimistic man after all.

An optimistic man that would never admit how his idealism managed to birth the cruelest and most sadistic missing ninja to grade Konoha's history since Madara Uchiha.

However, he could fret over his former favorite student later.

"Come on in Naruto-kun!" he called out,

Naruto walked into the office confidently, giving a slight salute with a muttered "Hatake-san" as he passed his sensei.

Hizuren smiled when the child reached the front of his desk, "what can I help you with today?"

"I've come to ask for a favor… if that's alright…"

"of course, Naruto-kun, what do you need?"

"um…" he looked away nervously, "I was thinking about partial specialization for the future of my career and… I was wondering if I could get a referral to help out at the Torture and Interrogation department in my free time… please…"

This shocked the Hokage slightly, in all honesty he was expecting the boy to ask him for a trip to Ichiraku for ramen or something of that degree, not a referral to torture people, "are you sure that's what you want to specialize in?" he paused, choosing his words carefully, "it is a very _emotionally_ taxing faction of the ninja world after all."

"I'm certain I'll be able to handle it, Hokage-sama,"

Sarutobi was about to object, still fearing for the boy's well-being when a new voice joined the exchange.

"I think he'd do very well, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, almost pridefully, "if his performance during the bell test indicates anything, it's that the mind set required for the job is within reach,"

Naruto very nearly smiled, but didn't, "thank you Hatake-san."

Now clearly outnumbered, Hizuren sighed, writing up a scroll before holding it out to Naruto, "give this to Ibiki Morino, he'll find something for you from there,"

"thank you," Naruto began to make his way toward the door when a thought occurred to him; absentmindedly, he paused and made a cross sign with his hands, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Another Naruto appeared beside him, "I'll leave this clone here to help out with the paperwork… okay, Hokage-sama?"

"that would be excellent Naruto," the Hokage said, probably too quickly seeing as it prompted a raised eyebrow from Kakashi; but then again, the boy was volunteering for _paperwork_. Such things warranted excitement.

Skepticism be dammed.

**wWw**

Later that day, heads turned as Naruto walked through the halls of the Torture and Interrogation department. He heard several whispers including, "what the hell is a kid doing here?" and the ever-pleasant, "he needs to get back to the kiddie pool," quietly, he shook them off.

It wouldn't do him any good to attack people he was asking a favor from.

Upon reaching the end of the corridor, Naruto knocked on the 'main office' door.

"come in," a slightly muffled baritone called out, so he did.

Ibiki Morino was known as the best of the best in terms of both psychological and physical torture. His infamy fell on the former in more cases than the latter as, despite what presumptions his scarred appearance may give, he didn't particularly enjoy getting his hands dirty.

Physically that is.

Ibiki had no problem watching as one of his guests would regress into their own insecurities before him until they've fractured their own exteriors and broken down their own mental facilities.

All for regret.

From regret.

Etc…

Because unlike most shinobi, that found it proper to utterly ignore regret in itself, Ibiki understood that regret, as a cognitive capability, was like a terminal disease.

It may waver and hide behind methodical tendencies and routines, but with _just _the right about of prodding, it can reemerge and emotionally inconvenience it's host as it festers into desperation.

Yes, Ibiki thought, regret was indeed a powerful function of the human psyche.

It was with similar conviction that the same Ibiki Morino was glaring at the copious amounts of paperwork on his desk when Naruto walked into the room.

"um… Ibiki-san?"

"what is it? Don't tell me there's more paperwork."

"no, it's not more paperwork," Naruto asserted, "I'd like the opportunity to help out in the process of torturing people for information," he pulled out the scroll the Hokage gave him, "Hokage-sama gave me a recommendation."

Ibiki took the scoroll and read it over,

_Ibiki-san,_

_I'm not entirely sure why Naruto's asked me to write this. As it is I can't see why anyone would want to volunteer to torture people._

_Nevertheless, this is the first time I've seen him taking real initiative for anything… and not wearing that awful orange thing he used to called fashion._

_So please, give him a shot._

_That is an order._

_Hizuren Sarutobi – Sandaime Hokage_

Shrugging, Ibiki turned back to Naruto, "are you sure you want to torture people?"

The boy in question nodded,

"alright, Hokage-sama says I have to give you a chance so lets go find you someone to torture."

"IBIKI!"

The door slammed open to reveal a purple-haired woman in a tan trench coat (and little else). Ignoring Naruto's presence, she stalked toward the scarred head of the department,

"the fucker's not breaking Ibiki," she seethed, "you better not have given me another one of _your pansies_ just because you didn't want to deal with the mother fucking paperwork you shit-stain, you know I prefer the physicality of torturing these people – not the mind games pussies like you resort to."

"Naruto," he turned to the child in question, "meet Anko Mitarashi, co-head of the department and….it seems we now have a free pris-_guest_ for you to 'speak with'."

Naruto was tempted to smile as they walked toward his 'trial run.' In his mind, Kyuubi was whispering all sorts of _unique_ brands of torture, regarding them as the 'art of maiming' that only her true disciples can learn.

_Right… because I definitely want to be the disciple of something that lives in my own mind._

"okay Naruto," Ibiki said, motioning toward a door they'd stopped in front of, "in here is the only surviving member of the Kageha clan; Ginju Kageha, a jonin. He's here for questioning behind his motives for trying to break into the Hokage's office only to be later detained at the Sarutobi compound itself… any questions?"

Naruto nodded slightly, "am I allowed to kill him after I get the information?"

If the condescension oozing from the content of his question didn't shock them, the tone of his voice most definitely did; he sounded empty yet confident, both attributes that were completely contradicted by his general stature and age.

Anko snapped out of her stupor first, lightly hitting the back of his head, "don't be so cocky gaki, do you have any _real _questions?"

"but that was a real question…" he mumbled. After a moment of thought he turned back to the purple-haired interrogator, "you said he was the last Kageha?"

"yeah,"

"If I'm not mistaken, weren't the Kageha devoted to the Uchiha? Like, fanatically devoted to the point that all of the members, save this guy, killed themselves after the massacre?"

Ibiki's raised an eyebrow at Naruto's question, most genin weren't privy to information like that, as they care to be; nevertheless, he decided to indulge the kid, "that is correct, why do you ask?"

"it just seems a little strange," he conceded, "they seemed to be a pretty tight knit group..."

"ah well, you can go ask him," Anko supplied, giving him a little shove in to the room, "we'll be watching from the window."

Naruto shrugged, turning to the restrained man. He looked to be no older than thirty, his shaggy brown hair in utter disarray; numerous bite-like marks littered his arms and neck, something Naruto assumed was Anko's snakes' doing. When Ginju caught sight of the overlooking container, he glared, how dare they send a _child_ to see him!

"can you speak?" Naruto asked, tone monotonous.

Silence

"see," the container sighed, "I get that you're in a shitload of pain," the boy conceded, "but I haven't been told whether or not I'm allowed to kill you, and since I actually want this job, I'm going to have to be cautious for a while, now-" he pulled out a notebook and pen from one of his interior coat pockets before scribbling a few signs onto an empty page, activating chakra around his fingertips and pressing the seal to Ginju's neck.

All of which took a little less than four seconds.

"-can you speak?"

"of course I _can speak_ you little fuck!" Ginju droned, before noticing that he'd spoken, "w-wait I didn't, no I'm _not_ saying anything but… but I'm still speaking! What the fuck did you do to me you little asshole?" he seethed,

"ah," Naruto smiled, "you've noticed,"

"don't beat around the bush!"

"hmm..." Naruto had stopped paying attention to the prisoner, drawing up two more seals in the process before pressing one on Ginju's chest and the other on his left arm.

"answer me you little shit!" the prisoner exclaimed,

"fine fine," Naruto sighed, "this," he pointed to the seal on Ginju's neck, "is a vocalizer seal, it regurgitates your thoughts for the world to hear… honestly, it's the least of your concerns," he pointed to the seal on Ginju's arm, "this, on the other hand, I doubt you'll like, but it's imperative regarding your survival."

"what about the last one?"

Naruto grinned, "that's a secret!" he took a small potato peeler out of his pocket and pulled the arm sporting a seal toward him, "now to keep a promise," he murmured,

Ginju's eyes widened as the peeler inched closer to his skin, "what are you doing? I thought you valued my survival!"

"I do," Naruto replied, "but for the record. I've always wanted to try this."

He slowly dug the blade into Ginju's flesh and pulled it toward himself, watching with morbid fascination as the layer of skin curled off onto the ground.

Glancing back at the arm, Naruto was pleased that his seal was working as it stopped the blood from reacting to the loss of skin. Smiling slightly so that a youthful expression would cross his face, Naruto dug the blade deeper into his charge's arm to flay off another layer of skin,

Ginju winced.

Five layers later, a faded salmon muscle was in Naruto's sight. From his readings on anatomy and pain levels, he knew that Ginju's pain, which shouldn't of been more than a steady burn, was about to get _much much_ worse.

On a whim he stopped for a moment, "Ginju-san, out of the kindness of my heart I've decided to throw you a rope before you have to experience any real pain. If you'd like to tell me why you broke into Hokage-sama's office and house, you should do so now."

"…fuck you." Ginju whispered. He was already in immeasurable pain, despite the lack of blood the aftereffects of Anko's poisons were enhancing every cut from the blonde boy. Idly, he wondered how the child before him could so calmly peel another human's skin off, said though was shattered when he felt something new.

Then he screamed.

Naruto had taken out his field knife and slammed it through Ginju's elbow to steady his grip on the now limp arm. From there he resumed to peeling away layers of the arm muscle; except that you couldn't really call them layers as they were more like strands that he was slowly unraveling.

Even Anko winced as she watched the registration of his situation wiz across Ginju's face in moments that Naruto was cleaning the potato peeler.

From Naruto's perspective, the experience was… odd. He felt no remorse in his actions and had almost grinned when Ginju had first started screaming.

To him, the screams felt _intoxicating_, as if this was what he was missing every time Kyuubi had stubbornly closed any cuts he made to his own person.

Speaking of Kyuubi, she was what made the whole experience so unusual for the boy; from the internal moans and panting, he became fairly certain the fox was pleasuring herself in the midst of the screams.

So there he was, physically hearing the deafening cries for mercy from the man before him while simultaneously hearing the mental groans of pleasure from the demon in his mind.

Yes. It was a little weird.

After a good ten minutes, Ginju's arm was almost gone from the elbow down. Taking a moment to clean his tools while working out a plan for the bone, Naurto paused after hearing a strained voice,

"s-stop…please...I-I'll tell you," Ginju croaked,

The jinchirukki smiled and listened to the broken man's tale.

Outside, Anko and Ibiki were dumbstruck, apparently the kid had actually broken him completely. For the first time they found themselves both grateful and not that the room had silencing seals activated.

Oh well, they could always read the reports, right?

Wrong.

After Ginju finished speaking, they saw Naruto nod slightly before activating the seals he'd placed; an action that caused Ginju to explode.

Yeah, they were a little shocked on that one.

They met Naruto outside of the door, completely devoid of the carnage within, apparently he'd quickly taken out an umbrella to shield himself.

"well?" Anko piqued, "what's the story with him?"

Naruto frowned, "I'm sorry Anko-san, but I do not think I'm at liberty to expose the information Kageha-san revealed to me… it's something only Hokage-sama can hear."

If they were confused by his serious demeanor, it didn't show as they escorted the new interrogator to the Hokage's office.

**wWw**

Hizuren Sarutobi was not an easily scared man. This, he decided, was something worthy of the "Professor's" fears. He'd just been given a frightening report from his interrogation team.

At first it didn't seem too bad although the methods Naruto had used to torture the man seemed rather grotesque he shook it off it 'necessary cause.' It wasn't until he head that Anko report how the prisoner had exploded after the session that he felt a sense of foreboding settle.

_*flashback*_

"_Hokage-sama," Naruto said, making his prescense known, "for my piece of the report, may I ask for complete priviacy?"_

_Hizuren was a little shocked, not understanding what could warrant such precautions, "alright Naruto-kun," he motioned for Anko and Ibiki to leave and activated the silencing seals, "I've activated the seals."_

"_Hokage-sama?"_

"_yes?"_

"_why did you order the execution of the Uchiha clan?"_

_Hizuren had expected a great many things to come from the young blonde's mouth this, however, was not one of them._

_He gaped silently for a moment._

"_e-excuse me?"_

_the boy looked at him thoughtfully, "I'm sorry if that was a little blunt, Hokage-sama, It is not my place to ask in the first place; that discovery is why Ginju Kageha tried to break into your home. He had been trying to kill you and/or your family as retribution for the order. Afterward, he said, he wanted to tell Sasuke Uchiha of the situation. That is my report." He bowed._

"_ah," he said, still a little shaken, but understanding the blonde's request for privacy, "alright Naruto, now I'm going to ask Ibiki to put you on call if the department ever needs an extra set of hands for a prisoner, since you did such a good job."_

_Naruto nodded,_

"_I hope you understand," Hizuren continued, "that what you heard and reported is a SS class secret, and that repeating it would mean certain execution."_

"_of course Hokage-sama."_

"_alright then, run along now Naruto-kun_

_*flashback end*_

Hizuren sighed, reaching for the next page from one of his piles of paperwork, hoping the numbing work would alleviate the nervousness induced by his own and his advisors actions.

He really was getting too old for this job.

**wWw**

The Uchiha compound was a most depressing place, Naruto thought; it didn't help him much to have found out the _real_ truth behind the lackluster aura the day before, the grounds themselves still seemed drenched with invisible blood, dirtied beyond reprieve.

He hadn't mentioned to the Hokage that Ginju had asked him to inform Sasuke of the truth behind his family's untimely demise.

Stopping for a moment he considered actually telling Sasuke of the village's idiocy regarding his clan.

_Nah,_

Walking up to the main house, Naruto mentally smirked at the distorted feminine giggles that permeated his subconscious.

_At least someone's having fun,_

_**Oh, I was just remembering yesterday… can't wait for the next time they call you in.**_

Surprising himself, Naruto agreed with her.

He knocked on the door. After a minute the creaked open to reveal a sleepy looking Sasuke Uchiha in pajamas

"w-what time is it?"

Naruto smiled very slightly, "six in the morning!"

Sasuke took a deep breath, "I assume you're here to look at the seals?"

The blonde nodded,

"alright, wait there, I'm going to go get dressed."

Ten minutes later, the duo were standing before the Uchiha family jutsu vault.

"Sasuke."

"hm?"

Naruto eyed the dimly lit, open, entrance to the vault questioningly, "don't you need an activated sharingan to open the vault?"

Sasuke froze.

"u-uh-uhm… Itachi left it open after killing any Uchiha h-he'd found nearby… yeah"

Naruto raised an eyebrow,

_Sure he did... how interesting._

They walked into the vault and over to an imposing-looking door,

"this is the one I can't open," Sasuke said, "I can see the faint seal-marks, but… I honestly don't understand the first thing about seals themselves."

Naruto nodded walking closer to the door and tracing his finger lightly across the exceedingly light marks. After tracing over the seals a few times, committing them to memory, he sat down against the door – notebook and pen out – and began writing notes.

Sasuke watched the 'dead last' in interest as he scribbled away in the small notebook. Idly, he wondered where his teammate learned such a rare skill in such detail considering how the Yondaime Hokage was the last true seal master to have made exclusive residence in Konoha.

Naruto was an odd puzzle of a person to the curious Uchiha.

Ten minutes later, Naruto ripped a small page from the notebook and placed it onto the door, activating both seals in the process. Seconds later the doors opened; Sasuke's jaw dropped, it was that easy? Years of waiting and that was it?

"that will be 10,000 Ryo."

Sasuke fumbled for the money, "thank you," he handed it to Naruto,

"business is business," the blonde shrugged. "I thank you for your patronage,"

As he left the compound Naruto counted his money, glad he'd found a possible future way to get extra cash.

_**Is money really the only reason you wanted to help him?**_

_Hm?_

_**You didn't do it out of the goodness of your heart?**_

_The goodness of my heart? What're you trying to be a comedian now?_

_**Tsk tsk, I'm just curious**_

_Right… don't care, though it's rather intriguing that he's activated his bloodline but not told anyone…_

_**Sure, sure**_

_You know, now that I think of it, don't you owe me some sort of lesson from killing Ginju?_

_**Damn… I'd hoped you'd forgotten about that,**_

_So what do you have for me?_

_**Eh… If you come to the mindscape, I'll convert some of my knowledge into scrolls. You can work on wind and fire manipulation.**_

_Manipulation? Don't you mean jutsu?_

_**No. Fuck jutsu. Aside from the Kage bunshin they're stagnant and prone to copycat assholes.**_

_**Manipulation on the other hand, is fluid with endless possibilities that can never be truly copied. very awesome indeed.**_

_fine, fine… why wind and fire?_

_***smile* they're the most painful.**_

He spent the rest of his day off sparring against his shadow clones while an extra hundred sat on the sidelines reading anything they could find (including the new scrolls from Kyuubi in the mindscape), and a final clone helped the Hokage with his paperwork.

Despite his natural aversion toward agreeing with the demon, Naruto had to admit that elemental manipulation was pretty awesome and couldn't wait to get better with it.

**wWw**

At approximately 4am the following day, Naruto shot up in his bed, a scream dying in the back of his throat.

Not that he would've disturbed anyone had the scream been vocalized. No one in their right mind wanted to live near the 'demon.'

He leaned against his headboard, forehead pounding.

It was a rather peculiar dream, he thought, now out of breath, panting.

He remembered the orange haired man glaring at his form, calling upon the heavens it seemed, as a great deal of earth began to surround him.

It was a painful amount of terrain, closing into an enormous levitating ball.

Such effort the man was exerting.

All just to beat him, the demon. Not kill, the man was excessively adamant about that.

Only detain… for now.

But then again, sometimes imprisonment was a less fortunate fate than death.

Right?

Right.

He remembered the pain he saw in the man's eyes, how it initially shocked him to find someone in almost as much pain as himself.

He wondered briefly if the person he saw could really exist out there.

Vaulting himself from the position he now found stagnant, Naruto prepared himself for the predictability that undoubtedly awaited his presence outside of his apartment.

Looking into his mirror, at his own reflective cobalt orbs, he couldn't help but again think back to the eyes of the man in his dream.

Those painfully rippled eyes.

**DUN DUN dun**

**Holy shit this chapter took longer than I'd hoped it to _**

**For the sake of this story the conversion rate for Ryo will be 10 Ryo = $1 (USD)**

**I have no idea what it actually is.**

**In case it wasn't clear, the seal on Ginju's chest was an exploding seal.**

**So the whole 'Kageha clan' deal is completely made-up, I just needed some sort of plot device for Naruto to learn the truth behind the Uchiha massacre, something that will be fairly important later on…**

**By the way.**

**Does anyone want to beta this for me? I'm sure I miss things when I edit and I'd love a second opinion… send a PM or email if you're interested.**

**Thanks :]**

**Also, although I've got a fairly detailed plain of where this story will be going, I'm always open to suggestions via review or PM.**

**awesome.**

**Bye now**


	5. Perfect

_"Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's time, the Bastard Time." – John Stienbeck_

"Talking"

_thinking/emphasis_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

Unknown to the majority of the masses, both shinobi and not, a little less than a mile straight past the hokage monument would place you in a very deserted training ground that held a sizeable crater at its center. This training ground, now overrun by weeds, was the exact spot Madara Uchiha summoned the Kyuubi to in his attack against Konoha with twelve years prior.

It had to look like an accident after all, it's not like he could've just dropped by into the center of town.

This training ground is where 499 Naruto's were sitting in rows, cross legged, and holding their right palms out whilst intently staring at the green below them. The final Naruto (the real one) was, for lack of a better phrase, 'working out;' alternating between running laps, kicking/punching at trees, walking up trees, etc…

He couldn't force himself to be excited about the missions his 'team' would begin the next day, as his paperwork adventures painted a pretty clear picture of what awaited him in the realm of D-rank missions.

Hell.

"I'VE GOT IT I'VE GOT IT!"

The real Naruto turned to face the voice, his own voice. A group of clones were huddled around a portion of grass,_ burning_ grass.

He ran over to them, dismissing all but the surrounded clone in groups of ten. When he reached his double, the clone was still holding his palm out, moving it left to right occasionally to show his rudimentary control over the element.

"so?" the real Naruto asked, "what'd you do?"

"well…your original idea was a little flawed, boss, instead of holding a consistent level of chakra, you've got to hit it with a small burst of Kyuubi's youkai, except you're not igniting the surface area itself, you're igniting the air above it."

"that would make sense," he muttered before looking back at his clone, "how much youkai, you know people will get suspicious if they can sense it-"

"it's like nothing!" the clone exclaimed, "like the amount that's used when our eyes turn red,"

wow, the real Naruto mused, that really is 'like nothing,' "so what'd you do to control it?" he asked,

"that's what's awesome about it! I didn't do anything!"

"hm?"

"the youkai never leaves you so it creates, an invisible youkai-string that keeps you connected to the flame, then when you put it out," he paused, concentrating to remove the flame's power, "the youkai just retracts into your body."

"so it's like I'm a puppeteer that doesn't have to worry about chakra exhaustion?"

The clone nodded excitedly before dispelling itself.

Naruto smiled at the memories cascading his mind, lying down on the grass with his arms behind his head. He thought over his day, his continuing attempts to perfect elemental manipulation. He didn't delude himself in thinking this breakthrough in the creation and control of flames was equivalent to mastering the element, far from it, now he was stuck working on size, speed, and maybe even learning a few hand-sign combinations so he could pretend it was just another katon jutsu.

He sighed, he didn't even want to think about wind manipulation, fuck. The element itself was just so random; every time he thought he'd figured out how to control it, it would slip from his grasp, as if playing with him.

And he was supposed to have a wind affinity?

Hah

So he had to be a puppeteer for the elements huh… maybe he should look further into puppet works, it could help with his elemental control… right?

Damn. why'd he have so much to do? Even with clones there just wasn't enough time in the day for all of his work!

He frowned, pulling out his flask and taking a sip,

_This is all your fault, you know,_

_**Of course it is,**_

_Do you ever feel bad, about being forced to attack the village?_

_**Ahaha, no.**_

_Even though Madara made you to do it?_

_**Boy, the Uchiha may have inflicted me upon your town, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy every second of watching the flesh-bags quiver in fear before attempting to attack me,**_

…_it's not my town,_

_**sure, sure, so what'd you think of elemental manipulation, awesome right?**_

_It's quite nice,_

_**Psh, 'quite nice,' don't try to play it down! You fucking love it!**_

_And what if I do? You don't have to be suck a bitch about it!_

_**Oh but it do, it's simply in my nature.**_

_Whatever,_

_**Remember to kill a few people next chance you get… maybe then I'll give you a few pointers.**_

_Hmm… I wonder if I can take control of flames created by others, wouldn't that be fun._

_**Oh it'd be something, that I can tell you**_

_*mental grin*_

**wWw**

D-rank missions, Naruto decided, were created for one thing and one thing only:

Shadow clones.

It was pathetic, really, that the same children that would be expected to kill people twice their age less than a year from then were degraded to mere dog walks and paint jobs.

And then they wondered why Konoha had some of the highest first-year-genin mortality rates.

Every few days, after their 'missions,' Kakashi would have them train.

Though from Naruto's perspective, it didn't really seem like training, and after the first time in which he made a personal appearance, he just sent more shadow clones.

The first day team seven congregated for training, Naruto was asked to spar with Sakura whilst Sasuke and Kakashi watched; it was supposed to be an exercise in catching the flaws of others.

Standing opposite Sakura, Naruto was slightly bothered with how she seemed more occupied with forcing her hair into the 'perfect' position than the fight that was awaiting her, nevertheless…

"what are the rules, Hatake-san?" he asked,

Kakashi momentarially placed his hand on his chin before flapping his palm nonchalantly, "maa maa, I suppose anything goes would be fine,"

Naruto shrugged,

"LIKE IT EVEN MATTERS AGAINST NARUTO-BAKA…RIGHT SASUKE-KUN?"

"Hn,"

the copy nin sighed, "begin."

For a moment, it looked like neither of the genin were doing anything; then, Naruto pulled out his notebook and started writing. Sakura, becoming pissed with her opponent's action, made a hand seal and created two Bunshin illusions before charging with both toward Naruto. Said blonde, upon seeing her illusions, smirked as he seallessly created twelve shadow clones that formed a circle around his adversary, all of which were still diligently writing up a seal.

When Sakura approached the real Naruto, allowing her illusions to dispel, she pulled a fist back in preparation to punch the blonde; much to her surprise, however, the two nearest clones moved and blocked her punch, making physical contact.

On the sidelines, Sasuke was shocked, "Kakashi, how did Naruto's clones touch Sakura?"

"they're shadow clones, physical manifestations of a person's chakra network." The silver-haired nin replied, "it's a forbidden jonin technique."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "then how the hell does he know it?"

"apparently he has so much chakra that he is incapable of scaling it down to the required amount for an ordinary clone,"

the last Uchiha frowned, what'd Naruto do for such an excellent technique? Didn't _he_ deserve one too?

Looking back at the fight, Sakura was getting visibly annoyed with her inability to hit Naruto due to his clones interference. They continued to parry her strikes for awhile until the real Naruto apparently finished writing and Kawirimi'd with the clone closest to Sakura, immediately placing the finished seal on her forehead after the swich.

Within seconds she was on the ground unconscious.

Naruto began to walk away, the spar had been a waste of his precious time.

"Naruto!"

he turned, "yes, Hatake-san?"

the jonin glanced back at the girl worryingly, "what'd you do to her?"

"it's just a chakra draining seal," the blonde sighed, "she'll be fine in twenty minutes."

Then Naruto disappeared, having replaced himself with a bucket that had been on a nearby roof.

Sasuke looked at the bucket with poorly repressed jealousy; this was the dead-last? Seal proficiency, and now jonin level kinjutsu? He thought,

_what is Naruto doing that I'm not?_

**wWw**

Falling off of his bed whilst indulging in a semi-conscious state wasn't a completely foreign experience for Naruto. As a child, he'd find himself having trouble with sleeping for more that three hours at a time as he was in constant fear of being ambushed and attacked.

On this particular day, however, the young container's somewhat rude awakening could be attributed to what he would later find a rather disturbing dream.

The most vivid aspect he could remember from the dream was anger. Pure, unadulterated, anger.

After a little more concentration he could see that the loathing was directed toward some blonde _kid_ that thought it proper to leave his hair covering half of his face, including a slashed hitai-ate and one of his sharpened azure orbs.

Idiot.

Was it even a he?

Yes. It was male, women don't grin like that. (except for Anko, sometimes)

But where was this anger coming from? Didn't he know better to control it? He could feel the pull toward the fox's chakra as his emotions ran rampant through ought his psyche.

It was embarrassing.

Then the guy's arm somehow imploded (at the time he only had one,) and the visual level of the dream turned slightly in surprise.

Oh joy,

In all of his 'glory' Kakashi Hatake, Naruto's sensei, was there, apparently tired because of something.

…what the fuck?

Naruto knew his teacher had a sharingan eye from his studies but… this didn't look like a normal sharingan eye at all.

That was it, everything cut to black from there.

The worst part about these dreams? He couldn't _hear_ a thing. He could see all the visages surrounding him, feel the dejected anguish and magnificently suppressed rage his apparent self harbored.

Perhaps he should study lip reading in his spare time?

Then again, what spare time?

He sighed and furrowed his eyebrows in contemplation. This was the second time this week that painfully vivid dreams chose to haunt his presence, and this one was starring his teacher too…

As far as he knew, there was absolutely no logical reason behind Kakashi's presence in his dream.

And while any normal person would simply discard the phenomenon as a sign of stress drabbled with coincidence, Naruto was viscerally aware of just how _ab_normal he was.

This could become a cause of concern, it was best for him to have a friendly chat with the central factor of his abnormality: the fox.

**wWw**

His mindscape looked different since the last time he'd been there. Gone were the troublesome puddles of water and steel bars of the seal. Instead, Naruto found himself standing in a long hallway with a twenty foot ceiling and two doors on either side of his person (making a total of four). The walls and ceiling were all ivory and plain. The beige rug was just as plain as the walls. If anything, the only decorative aspect was that the sconces on the left wall were blue whilst the sconces on the right wall were red.

"Oi fox!" he called out, not wanting to intrude.

"what is it, boy?" she snapped, peering out of the first door on his right before walking out to stand before him.

"no need to be so quick to dismiss dear old me," he remarked.

The remark was met with a scowling demoness.

Naruto frowned, sometimes he really wished the Kyuubi wasn't such a bitch.

Sometimes.

"so," he sighed, "do you know anything about my dreams?"

"your dreams?" she asked, eyebrow raised,

he nodded

"for fuck's sake, _child_, use your brain for once!" he faltered slightly under her harsh gaze but she pressed on, "_why_ in god's name would I know anything about your dreams? They happen to be filed under 'conscious conditions' and shut away from me in the seal," she turned away muttering, "guess the poor fucker didn't want me screwing with you,"

Silence overcame the duo, both lost in their own thoughts. After a few moments Kyuubi looked back at her jailor, cursing her unwilling curiosity, "why do you ask, boy?"

"it's nothing," he muttered, bothered by her "I've just been having some weird dreams lately,"

"they're obviously more that 'weird' if you've decided to bother me; show me."

"eh, okay,"

He concentrated for a few moments, willing the dreams to recreate themselves. As expected, his subconscious mindscape bent to his will, producing a screen to display his inner terrors to, ironically enough, a more literal inner terror.

…

After watching the reiterations of his nightmares, the demon looked from him to the depiction impassively with only the slightest glint of concentration before letting out a booming laugh that resonated through the Spartan hall.

"looks like you've developed fragmentary clairvoyance, boy."

His jaw dropped as he watched her joyfully convulsing form.

Clairvoyance?

_Him?_

He cleared his throat, "clairvoyance… as in… premonitions of the future?"

"don't be so smug about it." She chuckled, "I said _fragmentary_ clairvoyance. Being that there are infinite paths through the shit-fest you humans call 'life' and therefore infinite futures in tandem… it seems you've gotten the ability to glimpse at random scenarios," the chuckle swelled back into a harrowing shriek of laughter, "something that is utterly useless."

Naruto frowned, "what could've caused this?"

"that's the best part." She grinned, canines glowing in the diminished light, "it's all your daddy-o's fault!"

he blanched, "wh-what?"

"when the prick called the shinigami to seal me away he didn't consider that since the shinigami is an omnipotent being, it would have reign over all alternate paths… Apparently you weren't supposed to have gone through enough emotional stress to weaken the seal as you did but since you did you're now stuck with arbitrary visions that have practically a nonzero probability of belonging to _your_ future!" she continued to laugh, "please do let me know if you decide to fuck anything else up, will you?"

With a cringe reflecting her response, Naruto decided it was about time to leave his mindscape.

**wWw**

"no."

"e-excuse me, Naruto?"

Naruto took a deep breath, "Hokage-sama, I mean this with the upmost respect. Do not send us after that cat again. We are capable enough for a C-rank mission. If you make me fetch that damnned furball I swear to god I'll kill it." He narrowed his eyes, "you know very well that I will, I don't break my promises."

**wWw**

Two days later, Naruto was genuinely surprised when Kakashi arrived on time for their new mission, although he didn't express it as vocally as his pink-haired teammate. The way he saw it, the bastard just liked fucking with them sometimes.

It's not like the jonin could've had much of a social life to draw a good laugh from.

As it was, Naruto took great joy in the fact that Sakura refused to speak to him now.

What an exhilarating accomplishment it was.

Nevertheless, after initial petty confrontations, the group set off.

Less than three hours later, the drunk they had to babysit was complaining again. The pink _thing_ was whining about her 'precious Sasuke-kun,' and the others were cringing at the noise.

Minutes later, a small puddle was noticeable on the horizon. Gazing at the sky for a second to consider how it hadn't rained in weeks, Naruto used the holy powers of common sense to decide the puddle was an illusion, ergo a trap.

He smiled, perhaps the trip could be good for something.

As the group approached the puddle, Naruto thought is was about time to test out a new seal he'd been working on, inspired by one of his apparent premonitions.

Upon reaching the small body of water, he nonchalantly dropped the seal onto its surface, finding unbidden glee in how his actions had been unnoticed by his peers, save Kakashi of course. Naruto fell behind for a moment afterward, gazing at the pool hesitantly only to observe as the clear oceanic reflection gained a crimson tint signifying its habitants departure from life.

Absentmindedly, he wondered if the now deceased pursuers felt the same desperation he felt that night; when the walls of terrain closed off the last ray of sunlight from abiding to his plea for help, his fruitless hope for retribution.

Once he was absolutely sure that not even his sensei was observing him he grinned, uncharacteristically. He found that in the moment it was completely warranted, the execution was just too… too…

_**perfect for words to adequately describe.**_

_exactly._

And for the first time since he'd met the sadistic demon fox residing in his gut, he agreed with her purr wholeheartedly, ignoring the sudden elongation of his canines.

It was a frightening thought, when considered.

But consideration isn't all that important these days.

**Dun dun DUN**

**And the plot thickens… kind of**

**so I'm a little undecided about Haku (who will be making his debut in the next chapter), so I'm just going to have a poll that will be running until I post chapter six.**

**The poll: should Haku (who is a man) live?**

**Just leave a yes or no as a review or PM **

**Thanks ^_^**

…

**bye now**


	6. Gull

"talking"

_thinking/emphasis_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

Kakashi Hatake wasn't the happiest ninja around.

He had no memories of his mother, his father committed suicide (and he found the body,) his only real friends died right before his eyes (the memories now permanently etched into his Sharingan's photographic ability,) and then his sensei had to go and seal a demon into his own kid; leaving Kakashi alone, for good.

Yes, it was safe to say that Kakashi Hatake wasn't the happiest ninja around. However, despite all of his own former misfortunes (or perhaps because of them,) the former ANBU captain would be dammed if another one of his team mates died.

There was only so much a single person could take. Only so much time they could spend alone; and Kakashi would be dammed if he relinquished the last of his sanity for a couple of genin.

"_GET DOWN!"_

No. Neither he nor his team would die today, he reasoned, his mood simply wouldn't allow it.

**wWw**

The first time Naruto Uzumaki went to a team meeting for the rookie team seven he decided he was not going to become friends with his teammates.

It wasn't a particularly difficult decision seeing as he didn't have friends to begin with as everybody in Konoha hated him, but making the decision itself made some things easier to digest in his own mind.

The seventh time he went to a team meeting he decided he wasn't even going to attempt any level of acquaintance with them.

The sixteenth time he met with the team he decided it honestly didn't matter in his mind whether they lived or died. Frankly, he assumed that the rest of team seven felt the same way, and considered it a logical thought.

It is because of these decisions and thoughts that Naruto was not at all prepared when Kakashi unceremoniously yelled out,

"GET DOWN"

In the face of the fairly substantial blade of one Zabuza Momochi, or how minutes later he's giving them a small eye-smile promising that,

"I won't let my team mates die,"

before he rushed on into the fairly anticlimactic battle of tentatively above average jonin level ninja.

Despite this level of non-preparedness, Naruto quickly reevaluated the situation presented before promptly cursing under his breath,

"fucking team player, now I'm going to have to help with the pretext of _moral,"_ he practically spat out the word, "principles."

**wWw**

Completely forgoing Kakashi's pleading gaze behind the condensed Suiton jutsu as well as the subtle feeling of regret in stepping up to a clearly superior opponent in a life/death situation, Naruto stood his ground before Zabuza's water clone, trying to focus on his adrenaline and nothing else

"Ohoho? Yellow Chipmunk's decided to come out and play?" the ex-mist nin scoffed, "I would've thought the infamous 'Copy-nin' to have taught you midgets at least a little about the pecking order of the world…hmm?"

He didn't seem to notice the panicked look on Kakashi's face.

Naruto on the other hand, was doing his best to ignore everything around him except for his opponent. Despite his horrific grades throughout his time in the academy, even teachers that hated him found themselves admitting that his mind was rather sharp in the heat of a fight, giving him a certain unexpected edge.

In this situation, his thoughts were not only considering how to free his teacher, but how to mislead his surrounding companions into believing that he wasn't quite as strong or smart as he was. Until he gained enough strength, discursion was a rather vital tool for his survival.

Did I say Naruto was trying to ignore everything around him? My mistake, he was actually trying to ignore everything _within _him.

_**Just let me at em!**_

_No._

_**Pleeeeease?**_

_Shut up._

_**You're so insensitive!**_

_Silence._

_**Waaaah!**_

_Fucking lunatic._

He wanted to try his new elemental manipulation in battle but it seemed too risky as wind, the only readily available element at his disposal, was far too random and explosive.

Especially explosive.

Then it came to him: one of the more unlikely partnerships he'd ever been/would be forced to take part in and one of the least likely groups to succeed in anything.

"Oi!" he called out, "Sasuke!"

The last Uchiha snapped out of his own stupor and turned toward his blonde team mate, Kakashi all the while shaking his head frantically, (Sakura couldn't move even if she wanted to)

"y-yes?"

"Get your ass over here! I need your help!"

Keeping an eye on the water clone, Sasuke shuffled ungracefully toward Naruto, "what is it?" he whispered, voice hoarse,

"lend me your ear, I've got an idea."

**wWw**

Inside the Suiton prison, Kakashi was honestly panicking for the first time in years. This was exactly why he want to be a teacher.

How could he have been so stupid? His genin – no, his _green_ genin – were facing Zabuza Momochi and he'd gotten himself stuck in a fucking bubble!

He was even using the Sharingan! That was supposed to help in this kind of situation!

And even worse? Rather than run away like normal genin were supposed to in such a suicidal position, his genin (at least two of them) actually wanted to try and fight their way through!

What the_ hell _was wrong with them?

All the while a small part of him, slightly betraying his own better judgment, was actually a little curious as to what his 'cute little students' (as he liked to think of them) could and would come up to in such a stressful situation.

An even smaller part of his conscious mind-set was overjoyed that Naruto was apparently the one that was forming the plan since the team couldn't have two front-line fighters, and with Sakura's utter refusals to commit, really needed a decent strategist. It was times like these where he envied Asuma and his 'normal' team.

The lucky bastard.

Shaking his head is jealous disbelief, Kakashi turned his full attention back to the (most likely) struggling genin, only to see Sasuke preparing one of his famed fireball jutsus

Once again, now in the presence of what he could see as an obvious fire vs. water battle he had the think, _what the hell is wrong with them?_

**wWw**

Naruto could see that Sasuke thought his plan was stupid. The last Uchiha praised himself (silently) for inheriting the family spirit of having no prevalent emotions, however after being forced to spend endless D-rank missions with the boy, Naruto could discern the differences between what he liked to call the 'neutral dick' look and the 'annoyed dick' look.

While both of them had the same constipated scowl and frigid furrowed eyebrows, the 'annoyed' edition included an extremely slight twitch in his raven-haired counterpart's left eye.

Occasionally, Naruto wondered if using the Sharingan would make Sasuke more or less expressive.

Then he'd realize how little he cared.

In this case, Sasuke seemed to think that wasting his chakra on a fire jutsu against a _mist _opponent was a stupid idea.

Naruto reasoned and later convinced the boy that it was _fine_ and the _powerful jutsu_ was the _only way_ that such a powerful opponent could be _distracted_ before explaining the rest of his plan that even Sasuke thought was rather 'okay' for what they were capable of doing.

In actuality there was no purpose to the fire jutsu apart from Naruto wanting to get a look at the required hand-seals. He knew if he waited too long, Sasuke would get too fast at making hand-seals and he wouldn't be able to catch the proper combination. It's not that he had any sudden urge to know Katon jutsu's, he simply thought ahead and knew he'd eventually need a plausible explanation for being able to 'spontaneously' call upon flames.

Taking a few steps away, Naruto feigned the proper Kage Bunshin hand-seal and summoned twenty-four clones, henge-ing into a rock to for safe observations.

Seconds after Sasuke's fireball was launched, earning a loud laugh from Zabuza as the water clone effortlessly blocked it, Naruto had two thirds of his clones turn into fuuma shuriken an line up beside Sasuke (who had his own fuuma shuriken) shuffling between each other before simultaneously rushing at the clone, making way to use their weapons as if they were battering rams before five of the Narutos stopped short and threw their shuriken at the Zabuza-clone (dispelling themselves moments later.)

Smirking, the water clone shifted positions to block and redirect the shuriken, except that before impact the shuriken turned back into Narutos, all of which holding kunai and bracing themselves.

The remaining three Narutos and Sasuke were grateful to have reached adequate positioning for throwing their shuriken at the real Zabuza as they took advantage of the split second their enemy ninja was distracted in shock of the release of his own clone; by aiming at Zabuza from all different directions – he had no choice but the dodge.

Angered at the thought of being outwitted by mere children, Zabuza prepared to strike with his zanbato, only to be stopped by a extraordinarily pissed off Kakashi.

Feeling how much his time in the water prison had weakened his chakra reserves, Kakashi wove together a few genjutsu with his Sharingan, scaring Zabuza as he copied his complex water dragon jutsu. Once the ex-mist nin was washed up on the shore, Kakashi approached his adversary with a kunai, aiming to kill.

Right as the blade was about to meet Zabuza's flesh, three senbon buried themselves into his neck and he keeled over limply, Kakashi turned toward the newcomer,

"who are you?"

the newcomer – apparently a mist hunter nin, cocked his head to the side, allowing one of his loosely tied bangs to run across his mask,

"I'm sorry to have denied you the kill, copy-nin," he said, voice both stoic and serene, "but I've been looking for this one for quite some time,"

Naruto frowned at the intrusion but Kakashi shot him a look that implied how he shouldn't say a word.

"no harm done, you're just doing your job after all,"

team seven (plus Tazuna) watched as the hunter nin hefted Zabuza's body onto his back and disappeared via shunshin.

Moments later, Kakashi wobbled on his feet,

"I-I think I may have put a bit too much into that last attack-"

With only a slight warning, the jonin shook heavily trying to balance himself, before finally collapsing onto the ground below unconscious.

Seeing this, Naruto removed himself from his disguised position (with no one noticing) and chuckled, wondering if all jonin tired this easily. After summoning a few clones, he told himself to not underestimate those around him and that they probably didn't tire very easily at all – that this was clearly a special situation.

Deep down, he voraciously hoped the thought was true.

**wWw**

Covered in pastel yet warm taupe shades, Tazuna's house could best be described as _cozy_. The overbearing daughter and crying child just added to the domestic ambiance.

All in all, it was not the sort of place shinobi housed themselves in. The ideal shinobi was supposed to be like a ghost: Spartan needs and emotionless consciences, (generally, their homes were in similar condition.)

However, with an unconscious Kakashi being carried by Sasuke and three Narutos, it was really their only option.

**wWw**

Three days later, after festering impatiently in their own evident inaction, Kakashi announced that Zabuza was actually alive and that the hunter nin that took him away was an accomplice of unknown strength. Naturally, the team knew they needed more power before going up against an unknown opponent. This is what placed team seven walking into the woods to train, with their teacher following behind on crutches.

When they reached a clearing, Kakashi cleared his throat,

"hmm, so today we're going to learn to climb trees!" he eye-smiled,

"BUT KAKASHI-SENSEI," Sakura objected, "WE CAN CLIMB TREES ALREADY!"

if he hadn't been wearing a mask, the copy-nin probably would've been grinning widely, "oh, but this is different; you're going to learn to climb trees," he walked up a nearby tree using chakra, "without your hands!"

Sakura squealed in excitement,

Sasuke narrowed his eyes in anticipation,

Naruto deadpanned: to create seals on a whim (i.e. during a battle, no matter how trivial,) impeccable chakra control was necessary as it's almost impossible to know the exact amount of chakra required when the seal had effectively just been invented. If too much chakra was added, the seal would backfire and explode in a rather unpleasant matter than people without demons living in their guts probably wouldn't survive.

"uh, Hatake-san?" he muttered, slightly annoyed at the lack of importance in the day's training,

"yes, Naruto?"

"I already know how to climb trees – without my hands." In demonstration he leisurely walked up a nearby tree, and then back down, "I believe my chakra control to be sufficient… may I leave? Or do you have anything else I can learn?"

Beside him, Sasuke seethed at the prospect of falling behind.

Noticing Sasuke, and not wanting to aggravate his mental condition, Kakashi frowned slightly, "I don't think you're quite ready to move ahead of the other's but if you can already do the exercise, I suppose you should just go off and train on your own."

"that's fine, Hatake-san, I'll be back later," Naruto said with a sad smile, before walking further into the forest.

**wWw**

"_hello?"_

Naruto ignored the voice easily, fairly used to Kyuubi trying to yell him awake in the middle of the night.

"sir, please wake up,"

The voice was getting annoying, why did it matter if he woke up? He'd just spent the past twelve hours trying to get a handle on his elemental manipulations with 200 other clones while another hundred worked on various seals that he'd come up with recently but couldn't seem to get right; and a final fifty clones tried to form chakra strings for regular puppetry (per Kyuubi's instruction as she owed him for killing the missing-nin earlier in the puddle.)

The demon made a decent teacher and the chakra strings were coming along nicely, though still a little unstable; fire manipulation was improving as well, however wind manipulation still tended to blow up in face half of the time.

Nevertheless, he was goddamn tired, and this person was breaking his relief.

"you know you'll catch a cold if you sleep out here."

Wanting to tell this asshole to leave him alone and that he'd never been sick a day in his life due to a constant flow of immunization-building youkai flowing through his system, the jinchuriki squinted his eyes at to the midmorning light cascading around his new counterpart's form. After blinking a few times he got a better look at the person kneeling in front of him.

Pink kimono, long smooth black hair, simply _dazzling_ eyes, plush red lips, and a solid scent of testosterone (demonic senses sure do come in handy)… there was no mistaking it, he was looking at a very _very_ feminine boy. With this new information in mind, there really was only one way to greet him:

The demon container cleared his throat,

"are you anticipating a sex change, sir?"

The boy's eyes widened and he fell over.

**Dun dun DUN**

**Holy fucking christ this took way longer than I anticipated – sorry about that – I'd gotten a new computer and it's been a bitch to transfer and adjust.**

**But I'll be back to regular updates now :]**

**I'm sorry if the breaks ever seem too sudden but I can't bring myself to completely regurgitate every single canon scene when I'm not changing anything.**

**Here I tried to make the whole 'tricking Zabuza' thing seem a little more realistic than it is in the anime, because **_**really**_**? A single fuuma shuriken with only reckless charging as a precedent? I'm pretty sure missing-nin have to be at least a little smarter than that to survive more than a day against professional hunter nin.**

**Oh yeah, and I'm completely omitting Inari beyond vague reference, he annoys me.**

**Ah well...**

**Oh yes, and Haku will die – by the way – I was a little shocked at how many people cursed his existence but I suppose that's just life ^_^**

**Alright then,**

**Bye now**


	7. Hubris

_"__It is well, when one is judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same God-like and superior impartiality." – Enoch Arnold Bennet_

"talking"

_thinking/emphasis_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

"do you have any precious people?" the boy asked,

After getting over the initial shock and misunderstanding, Naruto spoke with the boy vaguely about his life (i.e. I'm a shinobi and I passed out training; oh, you're picking herbs? That's nice…)

It really was an odd concept, Naruto thought, 'precious people' that is. One would have to be able to partake in trust for them to find another individual 'precious.'

Right?

Maybe not.

Perhaps he was thinking of 'people' in too narrow of a sense, blocking off invaluable options and thoughts. In actuality it could be rather a vague figure. The character in front of him, Haku was it? Likely meant the word 'people' as a measure of humanity in regards to himself, but 'people' could mean a lot of things both broad and fine.

In a less tapered visage, 'people' could simply mean yourself, couldn't it? after all, Naruto did care deeply for his own continued existence, right?

Perhaps that was why he never sincerely fought with Kyuubi when she denied him the right to kill himself. There was always a part of him that was okay with living, despite its perpetual misgivings.

"yes," he said, after only a moment's hesitation, "I do have one."

Haku smiled, "then you'll be strong,"

_**Damn straight**_

_You're such a creep – you know that? listening to everything I do and such,_

_**Well that's just mean,**_

_Tell someone who cares._

He turned to Haku, "thanks for the opinion, I'll be going now,"

"perhaps we'll meet again,"

"sure – maybe,"

_**in hell perhaps,**_

He stifled a laugh as the strangely feminine boy's image disappeared into the forest; perhaps it was time to see if his 'team' gave a damn that he'd disappeared.

_No shame taking a leisurely walk back, right? It's not like they're going to miss me._

**wWw – two days and one****leisure-filled walk later - wWw**

Covered in pale yet warm taupe shades, Tazuna's house could best be described as _cozy. _The accompaniment of the shrill of a screaming housewife at the hands of some rather distasteful thugs, along with the even more piercing voice of an otherwise brooding toddler however seemed to become enough of an annoyance that Naruto dragged himself from his extended, _cozy_ slumber.

_What in fuck's name is that noise? _

_**Dying giraffe.**_

He paused, considering the idea momentarily.

_Somehow… I don't think so._

_**Killjoy. That is what you are.**_

Naruto glanced out the window, ignoring the demon's barb, only to find the woman of the house (not counting Kyuubi) cornered by several thugs – _ah, the squeals. – _Nearby he could also spot a practically unconscious child that likely tried to help in the most moronic method possible.

He turned away, content with allowing the thugs to have at least one successful pillage until a thought dawned upon him: _if I kill these 'fine' men, Kyuubi will have to help me with my wind manipulation problems…_

Of course by 'problems' he meant the fact that he kept blowing himself up and would've probably died had the demon not constantly healed him in the first place.

_Ah, fuck it, sometimes people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time._

He sighed; sometimes, good deeds managed to help everybody. Well, everybody except those who die – but they're not important. So, jumping through the aforementioned window, Naruto landed in front of the distraught woman,

"what are you lot doing?" he asked the thugs,

"oh lookie, some kid wants to play ninja!"

Naruto frowned; didn't people understand how stupid it was to underestimate people? Did they never notice how those who underestimated their enemies tended to die sooner? Really, he would've liked to think that common sense wasn't such a rarity in the world but…but…

Apparently it is,

Suddenly (though it seemed rather slow from Naruto's perspective) one of the thugs took a clearly oversized and unbalanced sword and charged while the other seemed to try and run around (again at a rather despondent pace) to form some sort of 'from-behind sneak attack.'

All in all, it was rather pathetic; slitting their throats that is. He didn't even bother making any Kage Bunshin – or really, using any chakra to begin with. If he had to, it would've probably depressed him more that the thugs' attempted tactician skill.

Giving another slight sigh at the obvious waste of time, he turned to the previously attacked woman, who was shaking slightly from the literal cutthroat display,

"Sorry Miss," he shrugs whilst delicately licking the blood from his hands that, unbeknownst to him, matched the newfound crimson glint invading his vision, "for the unexpected carnage."

Her frantic nod seems to stem from fear but he decides to ignore it – it wasn't like people wouldn't fear him in the future, this was something he should get used to.

**wWw**

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN NARUTO-BAKA?"

ah, the normality.

He gives a fanged smile that (somehow) went unnoticed by his peer, "top of the morning to you, Haruno-san."

"ANSWER ME!"

"yeah…." Naruto drawled, "I don't think so…" he turned away from his perpetually (minus the occasional moment _Sasuke-kun_ was near) seething team mate, silently cursing at how long he'd slept for, as the bridge was covered in mist to the point where even his demon-enhanced eyesight was practically useless.

He frowned; it seemed to be that Zabuza was back to his former sword-ridden glory, he knew leaving him for someone else to kill was a bad idea but in the end, his opinion didn't matter to many people. Shrugging, he sipped his sake flask whilst extending his senses as far as possible in an effort to find some sort of preferable route. After a good thirty seconds, there was nothing.

_Just great,_

_**Are you even being sarcastic?**_

_Honestly… I'm not sure anymore._

Suddenly there was an explosion of cold air from off to the young container's right, falling in great contrast with the typical heat of the area.

_That seems promising,_

_**yes Yes YES!**_

_I take it you are looking forward to this._ He thought humorously, as it was a little odd to have her show interest in any certain 'meat bag' over another.

Then her voice turned surprisingly cold: _**Go to the iced over fight, boy, I don't have the patience for your idle dawdling. It has been far too long since I've felt the ethereal power of ice bow before my own. **_

_Ah_, he thought,_ it's a pride thing._

Naruto ignored the banshee's continual squeals, turning away from her and toward the vaguely concealed frost-bidden fortress. Walking toward it, he prepped himself on how to properly 'offer his aid' (i.e. shove others out of the way and effectively steal their kill, not that the other twelve year olds involved would've particularly cared as far as he could tell. Their morals seemed to divulge from his when it came to the retrieval of an opponent's life, no matter how pathetic.)

_**I do hope I don't have to remind you, should you lose here, my supposed reputation would tarnish itself magnificently.**_

He almost stopped short at her sudden statement, not even daring to respond. Despite all of his meetings with the demon, her teachings etc… this was not a matter of preference, as far as demons went, this was business. _Her _business. Kyuubi was, and would always be first and foremost: a fire demon. It wasn't his place to question the world order as a simple proxy.

She chuckled in a carefree manner lightly before reverting to her former commanding tone: _**It would not do you well in life to lose this battle, child. It holds an important place for your future.**_

Genuinely not wanting to know what she meant, Naruto broke into a run.

**wWw**

Sasuke Uchiha was not having a good day.

Granted, when considering his life and experiences as a whole, it was difficult for the brooding child to complain about such comparably frivolous things as the mental trauma of his past (read: being forced to watch his brother murder his parents in a repetitive illusion for three days, at the age of six.) didn't really leave room for any possibility of _worse._

In fact for a time, Sasuke actually considered the idea that his brother cared for him so much in his own twisted way that he may have thought the trauma to be a 'helping hand' in making the remainder of the young Uchiha's life better.

Then he dismissed the idea, as it was rather ridiculous.

Regardless, from the moment he stepped onto the half-built bridge on the edge of Wave Country that morning, he felt as if there was something seriously wrong.

When a longhaired masked nin trapped him within an arena of ice mirrors and began to fling senbon (fucking senbon) with that his fully developed Sharingan couldn't follow; the feeling intensified.

And when he was viciously shoved into the corner of the arena by a smirking Naruto only with an icy (no pun intended) "this doesn't concern you, Uchiha" for explanation, the sense of wrongness found itself at an all time high.

All of a sudden, Sasuke found himself pondering the blonde (despite the clearly unfavorable timing) as said teammate multiplied himself and had the clones protect the (assumed) real him as he quickly scribbled a rather complex looking seal.

It wasn't the seal that shocked the Uchiha however, as he was growing used to Naruto's rather obvious genius in the field – no, it was _how _instead of the usual 'throw themselves in front of danger' technique, the clones seemed to be forming katon jutsus.

_Honestly, _he thought,_ where the fuck does he pull these things from?_

It wasn't that he was jealous, Sasuke Uchiha did not get jealous, it was simply how improbable Naruto's abilities were becoming.

Was he really so good at deception that he fooled them all at the academy? Hard to believe, sure, but the learning speed of humans simply didn't correlate to how much Naruto suddenly knew.

What Sasuke didn't take into account was the idea that his teammate might not have been human.

At least, not for long

**wWw**

_**Hurry it up will you? Or are you hoping your opponent will die of old age so you don't have to dirty those pretty little hands of yours!**_

Naruto bit his lip in annoyance, trying to focus on the array in before him and _only_ the array. Unfortunately, not matter how much he loved seals; multi-layered glyphs could only capture so much of one's attention with an impatient demon barking at you.

_**I'll have you know, I don't 'bark,' it's entirely undignified and-**_

_FINISHED! So now you can shut your fucking trap and enjoy the bloodbath._

That was another complexity involved in killing for the vixen, since she loved blood so much, it was pretty much a necessity for any murder – not entirely a bad thing as Naruto found the cardinal liquid rather beautiful, but such a requirement eliminated several methods of life-disposal including many poisons and the ever-popular burning.

The simplicity of ashes just couldn't compare, in the young container's mind, to the feeling of running his fingers through pooling blood.

Armed with this knowledge, Naruto clutched the small pages in one hand, turning to the Uchiha present,

"Sasuke." With eye-contact established, Naruto could see how the wavering sharingan giving the eyes more of a maroon sheen, "can your eyes see where he's going?"

A nod,

"I'll cover you. Send out a fireball whenever you can tell where to."

Another nod.

"good."

With every Katon jutsu shot Sasuke wobbled a little more but Naruto could see the masked opponent slowing down slightly as well – especially now as he grew frustrated with how all of his attacks would be swiftly intercepted by the jinchuuriki's clones. A slight hiss alerted the container to their first hit and he gathered some chakra at his feet.

_I've only got one shot at this._

Sasuke was getting closer and that meant he needed to be ready.

**wWw**

Sasuke was oddly pleased that Naruto had asked him for help with whatever he was planning again and it looked like they weren't going to need whatever the seal was for as the last Uchiha was sure his next jutsu would at least incapacitate their opponent.

With aching fingers he went through the hand-seals and called out the usual "Katon: Goukkakyu no Jutsu" exhaling heavily to expel the required chakra from his system.

Then something rather odd happened.

After hearing a muttered curse from Naruto, the flame (that was previously headed straight toward its target with perfected accuracy) began to not-so-subtly lean off to the right – as if being pushed by some invisible force.

Except there was invisible force as Sasuke could see a small red strand of chakra coming from one of Naruto's fingers push the flame away.

_What th-_

Before even getting a chance to question what he saw, Naruto ran toward their momentarily shocked enemy and almost tenderly placed the seal he'd made on their stomach.

What the seal did almost made Sasuke hurl.

The first sign of any effect was but a muted sibilant gurgle before all of the mirrors (and the enemy) dropped to the ground.

Next, the now unmasked Haku began to yell out in unintelligible pain and Sasuke could see that the seal was apparently forcing the skin and muscle tissue around it's placement to burn off; however, once the erosion reached the main blood vessels (Haku had already fallen into a comatose state from the pain) it stopped to allow the cardinal liquid to pool around the stilled form. There was no doubt in Sasuke's mind that their opponent was now dead.

Then the world darkened.

**wWw**

One look at Sasuke's expression told Naruto that he'd be better off unconscious so he jabbed at a minor pressure point while the boy was still distracted. Then, with a light kick to be sure his teammate was out, he smiled fondly at his work and took to inhaling the delightful metallic scent of blood.

The young container then pulled out several small vials and began to fill them with Haku's still-pooling gore – he hoped the mundane task would distract him from Kyuubi's enthralled moans (she thoroughly enjoyed the screams,) and his own unwillingly worried thoughts of how to explain his element manipulation to Sasuke.

Naruto wasn't stupid, and he knew the sharingan probably would've noticed the difference between his chakra and his youkai.

_**Stop worrying, **_Kyuubi whispered from the back of his mind, clearly still basking in her own afterglow, _**you've done well.**_

He couldn't help but utter a small smile.

While capping the bottles, sounds of yelling caught his attention before they abruptly stopped – whatever, it wasn't his problem. He summoned a small flame and set Haku's body on fire, not wanting to leave any tangible evidence of his bloodlust.

After picking up Sasuke, he headed off to find the rest of his 'team.'

**wWw**

"OH MY GOD YOU BAKA, YOU'VE KILLED SASUKE-KUN."

_Oh, _Naruto thought, un-amused, _found them._

"Naruto," Kakashi began, a slight warning in his tone, "Is everything okay?"

"OF COURSE NOTHING IS OKAY, SASUKE-KUN IS-"

"_just fine _Sakura," Sasuke moaned, pulling himself off Naruto's back,

"want to explain what happened, Naruto?" Kakashi asked,

"oh, you know," the blonde said jovially, flapping his hand in an excessively nonchalant manner as if hoping to play the victory off as some sort of fluke, "Sasuke was having a little trouble with the Zabuza's senbon-obsessed assistant so I helped him out by block the senbon with my clones while Sasuke hit him with several Katon jutsus."

Kakashi rose his visible eyebrow as if to say: _"that was it?"_ Before turning to face their client, asking how the man was feeling in light of their previous battle(s).

Sasuke on the other hand – while simultaneously batting away Sakura's worried fusses – narrowed his eyes at the blonde, deciding not to say anything to contradict his words in an attempt to gain his trust. The seal expertise that brutally dismembered their opponent was one thing; however, though Kakashi may not have seen it from across the bridge, the last Uchiha would not forget the subtle red strings of chakra his sharingan spotted sprouting from Naruto's fingertips before attaching themselves to _his _fire jutsu.

Whatever was possessing the (former) dobe, his 'team mate' to push even more credit to the Uchiha name, he didn't know, in fact, he didn't care – it wasn't important in the least. Whatever sort of power the infuriating blonde was viciously hiding, well, that was a different story. An entirely different story that Sasuke refused give up on. He may not have been as much of a genius as the Nara heir, but he was confident enough in his own intelligence to believe that he could piece together a puzzle as confusing as this one.

_Power like that doesn't just appear overnight…_

Unfortunately for Sasuke he didn't realize that in Naruto's case, power 'like that' did appear overnight.

The night in question just happened to be his birth-night.

**wWw**

Somewhere in the forest, a pair of thoughtful eyes followed the blonde's movements intently, wiping the persistent blood of Gato's mercenaries off on the side of his cloak.

_You're certainly getting interesting Naruto-kun._

**nyan.**

**Fucking writers block.**

**Anyone wanna guess who the eyes belong to at the end? Lol…****.**

**In other news… anyone else going to comicon next month? I'm quite excited…**

**Feedback is always appreciated ^_^**


	8. Interlude: Interest

"talking"

_thinking/emphasis_

_**Kyuubi talking**_

**wWw**

_The only true combatant to loneliness is interest._

Naruto Uzumaki (rightfully 'Namikaze') spent the better part of his early life with a befitting maelstrom of ignorance clouding his vision.

Ignorance as to why the villagers spat on his already overcharged food, ignorance as to why the orphanage found it proper to allow – no, _force_ a four year old child into self preservation, ignorance as to why his parents were never there, and ignorance to the love their presence would've otherwise given.

With all of the colorful names for "demon" the brilliant minds of Konohagakure no Sato could fabricate, it's no wonder the young Namikaze heir also spent the majority of his early life in a dizzying state of loneliness.

The same could be said in regards to the utter _brilliance_ Konoha produced when the irony of the circumstances placed one of the nine people in the world that could, no matter what, _never_ physically be lonely in the position to lose a piece of himself irreparably to both the ignorance of others and the ignorance of himself.

And despite the initial donation toward said well of ignorance (by one Hiruzen Sarutobi,) the effects themselves could be summed up as considerably self-imposed.

It is because of this ignorance that, in another bout of truly defined irony, Naruto Uzumaki never knew (and never would know) that he spent the first seven years of his life being watched – a surefire sign of interest.

If someone were to inform the twelve-year-old Naruto of how interested others were in his life, he would've laughed out loud in the face of the informant; because despite how the young container managed to shock himself out of his ignorant confines, he would never sense, nor notice during his time in the country of Wave, the cold set of dead crimson eyes watching over the terrain as his tired form fell from exhaust of training. After all, it wasn't important.

Yet.

**wWw**

_As the worst type of genius, insanity stems from the insatiable interest in "why"_

Itachi Uchiha, as many are aware, is an S-Class missing-nin wanted for the slaughter of the entire clan that he had been heir to, barring his brother who he (for some reason unknown to the masses,) spared.

Slaughter, the bingo books say, a word that almost brings a smile to the stoic raven-haired boy – _Slaughter, _as opposed to 'deaths' or 'killings' as it places an implication that the situational victim is truly innocent and pure.

Pure, right. Now he actually laughs as the five great shinobi nations claim that the Uchiha's were innocent of anything – sure sure _sure_.

And he laughs a little more.

(he's content to ignore the questioning sidelong glance from Kisame – he's too much of a prude anyway, he wouldn't understand at all)

All in all, to the misfortune of those who follow after the Uchiha traitor (specifically his extraordinarily ambitious younger brother;) Itachi Uchiha is most absolutely, definitely, excruciatingly dead.

He wasn't killed in any sort of epic battle or really in any physical sense at all; and from the point of view of the world he hasn't died at all.

But deep deep down, in Itachi's mind he's fallen to the insanity of his own genius – fallen to the need to know, really _know._

Fallen to the emptiness he simply couldn't push away.

However, as Itachi Uchiha watches the small blonde jinchuuriki push his own foolish little brother's jutsu flames, he feels a stirring almost unfamiliar (in it's years of disuse,) as for the first time in a long time he doesn't know _why._

It is interesting, and Itachi likes interesting – more than he likes the condition of '"living."

**nyaan**

**Yeah… here's a little something extra for waiting so long for the last chapter.**

**In case you haven't noticed, the eyes referenced at the end of chapter seven is Itachi – he's awesome.**

**R&R **


	9. Espousal

**NOTE (added on 10/24): I understand the ending of this chapter has upset several people to such an extent that they would stop reading the story, so I ask you - please read the next chapter before leaving, because there's NO FUCKING YAOI.**

"talking"

_**Kyuubi talking**_

_thinking/emphasis_

**wWw**

_Wave country,_ Naruto decided, _is a very boring place when not shrouded in imminent danger._

He followed Kakashi and his teammates with exactly that in mind – deciding immediately afterward how the only truly worthwhile venture from the trip itself was Zabuza's zanbato, Kubikiribōchō, that the young jinchuuriki had stolen from Kakashi (after replacing it with a sword that had been altered with a permanent seal to have the same appearance and effects as the original.)

He'd used one of his newer seals that, after testing its effectiveness on Sasuke (without the last Uchiha's knowledge of course,) he was sure wouldn't be detected by the Sharingan.

Kubikiribōchō itself was hidden in a storage seal that he'd personally tattooed onto his left wrist.

You never knew when things like a giant famous zanbato would come in handy and, Naruto thought, it was always better to be over-prepared.

**wWw**

By the age of twelve, Gaara Sabaku had grown into a rather simple person.

He had a mother (dead,) a father (irrelevant,) a mother (in his mind,) two siblings (also irrelevant,) and tended to occupy his time proving his existence by slaughtering the various beings that surrounded him.

He quite enjoyed proving his existence; it was usually followed by praise from mother (the one in his head,) as well as a shower of blood; and, being a moderately hygienic person, Gaara liked showers – the addition of blood only made his flippant hobby all the more titillating for his irrevocably marred psyche.

Now, Gaara liked blood – almost as much as he liked his sand. Both of which were warm to an impeccably comforting degree.

Like a metallic sort of hug, from his mother (the important one, in his mind,) and the only kind she could truly give.

As was his existence and enjoyment, he was especially looking forward to the chunin exams in Konoha this year,

It promised lots of hugs from mother, and Gaara truly loved his hugs.

**wWw**

Naruto wasn't sure whether he should've been pleased or scared in response to the excitement emanating from Kyuubi's being at the sight of the Shukaku container.

As he walked briskly from the Hokage's tower (where he and his team mates had just given their report,) he wondered briefly if someone would take the initiative to help the 'honorable grandson' that he'd passed, before realizing how little he cared.

_**You should go back!**_

_No._

_**But if you do, you can show your strength to Kaku-chan's prison~**_

_And what if I'm not physically stronger than "Kaku-can's prison~"_

He felt some contentment from her agreement.

It was rather comforting, he supposed, to actually be able to see another jinchuuriki like himself – in person, not just theory – but, the motionless expression of bloodlust he noted on the sand child's face worried him a little…

…Or maybe a lot,

Suddenly, Naruto found a great deal of budding motivation make itself known within his subconscious. He needed to get stronger – now.

Once he reached his usual training area (the giant clearing where the Kyuubi had once been summoned,) Naruto created his usual clones to work on control and manipulation before dropping into light meditation.

_**Did you see that purple cat-suit guy earlier?**_

At least he was hoping to drop into meditation – but then again, Naruto wasn't particularly lucky in getting what he wanted.

He sighed, _that was a man?_

_**With the makeup? Of course!**_

_And how could you tell?_

_**It was obvious.**_

_Well then, enlighten me._

… _***mumble* … *mumble***_

_what?_

_**Honestly! The color was all-wrong for him! A woman would've known that hell, even a male demon would've known that.**_

_Did you have a point with this tirade or did you really need to vent about this guy's lacking style._

_**Tch, of course I've got a point. Not to mention I owe you a lesson for your adequate work-**_

_Adequate? _He thought, making sure to hide said thoughts from his tenant, _I killed three fucking people in the span of an hour, that should've been a 'decent' at least – godforsaken prima donna._

_**-and, since you need some more practice I think you should try to get a fight with the dis-fashionista over there.**_

_Why him?_

_**Because he's a puppeteer! Didn't you notice that wrapped thing he was lugging around?**_

Naruto nodded,

_**Well, I think (and by think, I mean know,) that you should (with my help, obviously) fix up your wind manipulation so you can fight him… those seals of yours will probably help too.**_

He shrugged

_**However, what's more important for you to learn today is genjutsu.**_

_What?_

_**Foxes are natural deceivers, and I'll be damned if my container breaks that tradition.**_

Well then, there clearly wasn't any room for his opinion.

**wWw**

The next morning, Naruto was woken at the crack of dawn by the unfavorable sound of someone banging on his apartment door. Though he could sense the lack of malice coming from the chakra outside, he trudged to the door with knife in hand – just in case.

"oh good, you've got a weapon~" Anko chirped, pushing her way into the apartment, "for a moment there I thought you might have been some naïve moron, or perhaps even a dead one!"

Naruto scowled, dealing with overzealous people was difficult enough _with_ proper rest – this was just ridiculous.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked,

"Well, considering how impressive your last little 'information extraction' venture was, Ibiki's decided to let you have another go!"

"Will I be paid?" _in money_ went unspoken, as he couldn't exactly mention his deal with Kyuubi to anyone.

She gave him a look that practically screamed 'of course you dipshit'

_Well, in that case… _he shrugged and created a shadow clone to attend his team's meeting for him later that day before following the snake mistress from his home, suddenly feeling full of energy and excitement.

…

"so…" the young container began, "why do _you_ like torturing people?" because 'information extraction' was just a prettied up version of 'torture and interrogation.'

Anko barked out a laugh, "you'll have to take me out for dango and drinks before we have any sort of 'heart to heart, squirt.'"

He smirked, "well, I don't know about the dango but," he pulled out his flask of sake from the side of his coat, "I'm sure we can share a drink on the way,"

For a minute, Naruto thought he might've broken her as silence enveloped them, before an almost genuine grin spreads across her face and she took a swig of the offered liquor, "you know kid, I think I may grow to like you."

**wWw**

By the time they reached the T&I building, Anko had excitedly explained that his newest 'client' (coughvictimcough) was a wealthy businessman by the name of Bako Minai who'd gotten a little too enthusiastic in his line of work; that is to say, he'd turned to the wrong set of ideals in a frantic grasp for more money.

Bako Minai was a young business owner that had just barely turned nineteen, he'd been orphaned by the Kyuubi's assault twelve years beforehand and subsequently been forced to live on the streets from the ages of seven to nine. According to the brief it wasn't entirely clear why he wasn't placed in a proper home but Naruto just chalked it up to the village civilian council government being a bunch of useless hags. It seemed, that due to his time of the streets at such an age, he developed an intense fear of poverty.

Naruto wanted to scoff – by the age of five _he'd_ found the streets to be a cozier option to some of the more sadistic minds Konoha had to offer.

He looked back to the file and raised an eyebrow, prompting a chuckle from Anko, apparently, by 'wrong set of ideals' the report meant that the'Box, Inc' CEO had turned to the Jashinist religion in his hopes of fortune.

Now there were three things people learned not to speak of as civilians in the village of Konohagakure: the first being the rumors surrounding the Uchiha massacre, the second being the rumors surrounding the Hyuuga's clan politics, and the third and most important being religion. Period.

For civilians, there had to be an understanding that the village of the hidden leaves was just about as secular as villages could get, and that mercenaries and pious worshippers did not mix, ever.

In fact, it was _illegal_ to be affiliated with any formal religion.

Here is where the sect of Jashin comes into play:

The Jashinists do have a legitimate figurehead, as much as it pains some to admit, however, as it's primary rituals dictate (i.e. torture, murder, and more torture,) the god Jashin is not a very nice one.

Nor is it forgiving, compassionate, lenient, or understanding.

What people don't always realize when they take an interest in Jashinism, is that Jashin itself is merely an extension of the Shinigami, meaning that Jashin's only interest is the collecting souls instead of allowing them to move on peacefully. In many ways, pledging yourself to Jashin was like forming a very _very_ one-sided business deal. A pledgee _must_ be willing give up **all** forms of physical pleasure (allowing a certain level of pleasure to be derived from pain,) all emotional ties, any hope of a pleasant afterlife, and any pigmentation that might have been in their hair (a minor concern, but duly noted nonetheless.) In return, the ideal newly formed Jashinist was given relative immortality and allowance of certain rituals.

What wasn't usually advertised was how easy it was to fall _out_ of 'Jashin-sama's' favor.

**wWw**

Naruto could tell he would not like Bako Minai from the moment he set eyes on the slim teen.

"They dare send another heathen before me?" Bako sneered, "Jashin-sama will not be pleased."

Scratch that, Naruto was positive he didn't like Bako Minai. Fortunately, he'd just been given the wonderful job of "disposing of" the Jashinist's powers – using any force necessary.

Naruto gave a mockingly sweet smile.

The man's hazel orbs glared viciously, despite being alltogether chained to a wall, with his ghost-white hair cascading across his shoulders and down his back. Occasionally, he would look down at the rags he'd been forced to wear with such disdain one would think the poor cloths would've burst into flames.

The demon container looked back toward the window where Anko and Ibiki were no doubt watching what he'd do – he, on the other hand knew exactly what he _had_ to do and really _really_ didn't want to do it, he-

_**Let me do it.**_

_What in the name of-_

_**Let me have control – only for a bit – and I'll deal with the cretin for you.**_

For a second

_I… no, no you shouldn't be-_

_**Oh for fuck's sake you imbecilic mortal! You're not even a little homosexually oriented, it'd be more torture for you than him and I for one am not dealing with your bitching later on so just shut your godforsaken trap and let me deal with it.**_

Without further warning, Kyuubi released her collected energy, effectively taking control of her jailer's body whilst simultaneously forming a wide-range genjutsu that covered the windows and recording devices with a crimson mist of sorts.

Had it not been three in the morning, Naruto might have been able to resist, but in his exhaustion it really wasn't an option so, with a shrug, he simply allowed himself to list to the back of their shared mindscape.

Truly, he didn't want to watch Kyuubi lose their body's virginity to another man.

**wWw**

**WOO~ CLIFFHANGER… EXCEPT NOT REALLY~**

**So, and I'm serious here, the next chapter WILL be up tomorrow.**

**Just to be clear, in case anyone thought otherwise – there will be no NarutoxAnko. I mean, I like her as a character and she's much better than most of the girls in the series BUT I think the whole "oh, we're both outcasts, lets get naked" plot device is a little too cliché.**

**I could use (because he will be getting a rather large role soon,) a decent squeeze for Itachi but it's not entirely necessary – as it is, the only thing that really crossed my mind (BRIEFLY THAT IS) was a FemDeidaraxItachi ordeal… except I don't actually think that would work like… ever.**

**Ah well, I suppose we'll just have to see.**

***if you need a better visual of what Bako Minai looks like, think a really young Ukitake Juushiro from Bleach.**

**Feedback is nice :]**


	10. Abject

**NOTE: right so, I'm sorry that the end of the last chapter was so vague and just to be clear NO, there is no rape involved in the story (personally I don't believe rape is the kind of thing to involve in something as trivial as fanfiction); what actually happens is explained in this chapter. As a general clarification, however, I'm working with the assumption that should Naruto be tired enough (i.e. after a day of training not get enough sleep) and should Kyuubi more or less 'save up' enough power, she would be able to take control of the body for a short amount of time.**

"talking"

_**Kyuubi talking**_

_Thinking/emphasis_

"_remembrance"_

**wWw**

With her residual built-up power fading her out of control of the body, she gave one last glance at Bako Minai's slumped over form and tried to feel some form of satisfaction from the steady stream of blood trickling down the spear her victim was impaled upon – or even amusement at how his death looked so ironically like one of the Jashinist rituals the boy likely worshipped. Still, Kyuubi found herself feeling only the hollow pang of disappointment. Her container who (as she truly hated to admit,) she'd begun to feel almost fond of, was acting like a worthless speck of mud.

A child.

A fucking child! It was so entirely pathetic it made her want to cry.

Except that she was demon, and demons didn't cry.

She'd wanted to test him, see how he'd cope without her immediate healing to his chakra system after training – and what does he do? Freeze up like an average child!

The realization of Naruto's adolescence truly was bleak.

What kind of idiot would immediately just to the conclusion that raping a T&I victim was necessary for his removal from existence?

What was he, a _civilian?_

Did he forget about his growing myriad of ninja techniques? Was his mind so broken by mere hatred that he'd let such essential things slip his mind?

Pathetic. Utterly Pathetic.

Sure, his genjutsu skills weren't that great (despite it being her forte) and he probably couldn't have dispatched such an effective aphrodisiac-like illusion such that the young Jashinist would literally pleasure himself out of immortality, and she'd even give him the benefit of the doubt on ever being able to use such artifice in the formerly given situation as it would've required a rather coarse yet vivid imaginative ability for which his stout heterosexuality definitely would've caused some problems.

But that didn't mean she had to forgive her deplorable little jailer for forgetting about his seals? Really! The one thing he can do with such ease the Sage of Six Paths would've been green with envy and he forgets at the first slightly scandalous suggestion?

Pathetic, she thinks again, and her frown deepens (a somewhat odd expression on the usually outwardly jubilant body) as a modicum of worry seemed to cross the outskirts of her consciousness. It was strange to feel such a sympathetic emotion – in fact; it had been so long since the burden had formerly graced her knowledge that she'd had to take a moment to properly categorize the sensation.

For years, her life had been a consistent cycle of selfish desire and disappointment that feeling something on the behalf of another had such an inadequate impression, as if a flaw had suddenly asserted itself upon her unblemished modality.

With a snarl, the frown morphed into a feral grimace.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune was _not_ flawed.

Not now, not ever.

With a nod to the torture department heads, she Shunshin'd back to the apartment and let the body collapse on her container's bed, internally brooding to herself.

By Kami, she was sure Shukaku didn't have these kinds of problems with his container.

It really wasn't fair.

**wWw**

Naruto felt like an idiot.

Like the idiot so many seemed to think he just _had_ to be.

Even worse, Naruto felt like one of those (now dead) cannon fodder Uchiha who realized how useless they were without their Sharingan.

Only his 'Sharingan' was a demon that he had allowed to completely make a fool of him that night. Granted, no one else would know how pitiable he had been but that was truly a minor point.

She knew, and that was all that mattered.

He was hopeless, he noted, without her constant assistance, and it killed him.

Furthermore, in Kyuubi's momentary absence he found himself looking back to his ambition, to leave Konohagakure, to get the fuck out of Fire Country as soon as possible and at least attempt to make a relatively stable life for himself where ever he may end up.

But how could he do that if he was so weak?

He couldn't, he was trapped – and he'd always be trapped: today, tomorrow, in ten years, in fifty.

There was nothing for him to work toward.

He was both unloved and unfulfilled.

With an odd sense of determination he ran (despite his mounting fatigue) to sit upon his birth father's head; his fingers twitching compulsively as the buildings blurred by. Upon arrival the trench knife was ready before he was, trembling faintly whilst facing his stomach – as his eyes tentatively focused on the trembling digits, he couldn't say his thoughts were his own, as they'd opted out of his reach in their own sense of autonomy.

_If... if… If… if… what if it's all taken out? The seal is impenetrable yes, yes but the skin surrounding it is not? would it still hold if carved out…? The skin surrounding is-_

The knife pokes his skin and he smiles at the warm dribble of crimson,

_It's n-not, never! not? never – ever? maybe next week? NO! not for a long long long long timeframe of certainty… or per-happenstance uncertainty? was he certain? was he… was I? is there an I or He? or-_

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see his impending literal perforation; he closed his eyes before opening before closing once more. He bit his lip, _what kind of escape isn't witnessed? If an escape commences and no one is around to see it – did it happen at all? _

He opened his eyes, ready for the best of the worst – until they caught sight of a new disturbance and widened.

The hand, which had been creeping closer to the tender flesh surrounding the Shiki Fuuin was suddenly halted by another, visibly stronger one that squeezed at the wrist until the knife clattered to the ground; Naruto's cerulean orbs

_But…?_

Looking up, Naruto paled as he took the in the entirely of the figure's appearance. The cascading darkness of the night sky did little to illustrate distinguishing features beyond the hardened vermillion gaze that he knew could never belong to Sasuke.

"Ita-" _chi? _His voice died en route, catching itself in his throat.

The penetrating regard narrowed and Naruto found himself soberly surprised at how _little_ he felt in the 'fear and terror' department – though, he could have contributed his knowledge of the Uchiha massacre's true beginnings to that effect; the Uchiha still maintained a healthily intimidating presence.

Briefly, he wondered if Itachi was here to finish the job for him – to let him escape once and for all.

"the if, how, and most importantly, why do not matter" Itachi said, in a perfectly practiced monotone that lulled the blonde to sleep.

**wWw**

Waking up in the apartment the next morning, Naruto experienced a fleeting moment of pure joy for simply existing in the condition of life.

Unfortunately, any happiness sharply vanished with the realization that his wrist was still bruised.

Fortunately, the first test of the Chunin exam was quite lame, he thought, so lame that even in the young container's despondent state, he still found the energy within himself to note just how uninspiringly lacking the initial test had been.

He genuinely hoped the portion hosted by the forest of death set to begin the next day would be more interesting.

Until then he had more pressing matters to attend to.

**wWw**

At his usual training ground, Naruto was trying really hard not to panic, not to fall into the same place he was the night before but he needed to test and see for himself whether or not his hunch was right; so with a swig from his beloved sake flask, the young container ran a kunai down the side of his palm, watching without the slightest flinch as the cardinal river ran between his fingertips before dripping slowly to the ground.

He waited.

Nothing.

With a couple of deep breaths, Naruto tried fruitlessly to calm himself but it was proving difficult with Kyuubi's chakra_ not healing him_ as a large portion of his body's sustainability relied on that effect.

…_Kyuu-chan? _He pried quietly into the void of their mindscape – he knew she was there, she couldn't have completely left; therefore making it merely a matter of forgiveness of his indiscretions, his _sins_.

…

_Please? Kyuu-chan I can't do this on my own,_

…

_If I freeze up like I did at the department I'll undoubtedly be killed!_

…

_I need you-_

_**Just shut up already you imbecile!**_

…

_**Because, and only because I am a kind demon I will assist you once more in training and combat – however, should you fail to meet my expectations again, the perilous agony you will face shall be neither swift, nor temperate. Understood? **_

_Yes._

He could practically feel her smirk, _**that's very good. Now: summon as much fire as you can and catapult it toward those trees; your current flame manipulation control is acceptable but the speed behind it is pathetic. God knows I won't even mention the disaster that is still your wind manipulation.**_

_Ah-_

_**Any forming blisters will be healed overnight. Now move.**_

In the following hours, the trees wouldn't know what hit them.

**wWw**

When he woke the next morning, Naruto was drenched in sweat and clutching desperately to his trench knife (that was usually kept hidden under his pillow at night).

As always, he was alone, even within his mind – as his dreams had no effect on the demon within, allowing her to sleep peacefully in her little corner despite any events her host may have been experiencing.

Considering how much panic the young jinchuuriki was currently feeling, he knew there was no way for him to get back to sleep until the next night. So after making himself a cup of coffee and taking a few deep breaths, he decided to analyze his newest dream, to try and decipher the fragments of clairvoyance altogether.

Despite what Kyuubi may have said, Naruto firmly believed that he could find some use for the visions, _it may not be my exact future_, he thought, _but the people around me don't seem to be any different._

With that in mind he picked out the first unrecognizable yet repetitive thing: red clouded cloaks.

Was it some sort of organization? He'd seen three people in the damn things and all of them seemed to have some sort of common goal: killing him, that is.

From there he considered how a certain level of resentment seemed to be another relating factor between the visions his dreams had been presenting him with. Whatever manner of life path this visage of himself had taken, he seemed to harbor a practically sentimental level of ire toward a great many individuals that had clearly always been poorly repressed; granted, with the amount of people his alternate had trying to kill him, anger seemed more or less justified.

He, the observing Naruto that is, vowed to not follow his other's lead; he didn't want to bother with anger, it was pointless in the grand scheme of his life.

He supposed the fact that he didn't recognize who the majority of the people in his dreams were could've been another relating factor.

Though once his heart rate had calmed, he found the most recent fragment left more confusion than others, why?

Itachi Uchiha.

Boy oh boy did his alternate despise the Uchiha viciously – there was almost a reddened tint over his view.

But _why?_

"_the if, how, and most importantly, __**why**__ do not matter"_

The whispered reminder of Itachi's warning tickled the back of his mind, calling for attention.

"_the if, how, and most importantly, __**why**__ do not matter"_

"_the if, how, and most importantly,__** why**__ do not matter" _

"_the if, how, and most importantly, __**why**__ do not matter"_

He tried to picture the elder Uchiha repeating the lines just as he was in his usual monotone and found it difficult before – very briefly, he wondered if Itachi was, in actuality, _dead _inside.

Moments later he dropped the idea, as it seemed a little too far fetched, so he spent the remainder of the morning to recuperation for the upcoming exam.

**Heh,**

**Naruto's going to be having some stability issues for a little bit.**

**If the occasional skimming over of canon plot bothers anyone – sorry, but the fic is mainly supposed to be about Naruto's mental happenings.**

**However, the next chapter **_**will**_** be bringing the big plot guns; and (because they'll have to appear within the next few chapters) I'm looking for suggestions for Naruto's future companions (Itachi will be one of them) I need two more.**

**Finally, for additional clarification: THERE WILL BE ****NO YAOI**** AND ****NO HAREM****-LIKE stuff.**

**Feedback is nice :]**


	11. Interlude: Janus

She was told to look both ways as a child.

Told quickly morphed into Taught and before she knew it, considering things from alternate perspectives became a mantra of her personality. _Look both ways, be careful, watch your step, offer kindness no matter what. _She liked to think all of these virtues could simultaneously coexist within her values. At least in an ideal world they could.

The duality of it all would never leave her, despite any major discrepancies that could present themselves. After all, as the light words of her parents turned to consistent nagging she, rather than puff her cheeks or throw some tantrum, developed a deeper connection to everything theoretically paired.

With passing years, the words of petty children tried against her solid disposition. She didn't cry, she didn't scream – tantrums were beneath her thoughts – she didn't even flinch as mud was thrown in her face time and time again.

The subtle prodding of her parents was no different from these juvenile forms. Just as she saw the other side of the initial, aggravating lessons; the encounters were simple to internally resolve. What reason did she have, anyway, to project her personal ideals on the world?

So she fell into a silent routine of belittlement and composure, and she felt pride at the grateful glances fellow civilians sent her way. No one liked a loudmouth or worse, a tattle. She fell so far into her quotidian; even the bullying became a matter of enjoyment in her (gratified) opinion.

One day however, the spell was broken. In great haste something within her, beyond her stunted comprehension, _snapped._ Such that as the insults of the day began _"forehead this," _her mind supplied, _"forehead that"_ a young Ino Yamanaka blocked her view and screeched at the aggressors until they vanished.

She wanted to call out for them to return (for her precious routine) but didn't. She wanted to snarl at the smiling face before her (for ruining everything) but she didn't. Instead a modicum of legitimate normality, that she had thought her brain was fine without, inched its way forward. The ideal that didn't care for hidden meanings or understanding – that, just wanted to be a kid that had friends.

In her baffled state, she doesn't even notice the majority of her personality, her ideals and values, being stuffed into a dusty corner; her mouth curling into a bright grin for the first time in years.

**wWw**

When she tells her parents she wants to be a ninja, all the while smiling as though someone had given her a puppy, their faltering expressions meant nothing. What child would see the concoction of terror and confusion they tried to hide? Definitely not her because by this time she has seen the last Uchiha, and she knows for sure that it's true love. Even with the removal of her original friend, she will let the world (her hidden self) know that she is exactly as she needs to be.

She is a living duality however, and it's only a matter of time before the mirage is broken.

**Holy shit it's been a while.**

**I don't even know if this makes any sense.**

**I'd like to have a new chapter out soon, a real one – but I figured a little interlude is better than nothing. This snippet should be a decent clue as to what's coming up real soon.**

**Perhaps some real plot will appear as well…**

**Feedback is always appreciated :]**


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